Prison Break-An Inside Scoop

This post is about an interesting story related to me by an acquaintance of mine who works on the set of the Fox Network drama Prison Break, concerning the return to the show of Sarah Wayne Callies, and the true feelings towards her among the other stars and cast members. It will require some amount of background, but I promise you its worth wading through it if you’re a fan of the show, or if you just want an idea of the behind the scenes shenanigans of the cast of a network television drama.

It’s interesting and at the same time infuriating for me to watch how the Fox Network is going about the business of destroying one of my favorite shows, Prison Break. At one time, it was a pulse-pounding adrenaline rush, with great acting and scripts, flawlessly executed and directed with great cinematography. It still is all that, but it has gone down some, as all series television will, even the best of them. Well, let’s be honest, the concept of the show hinted at a limited run, and in fact it was first devised as a mini-series. It evolved from there to a series, and is now in its fourth season. Originally it revolved around a guy trying to break his wrongly-convicted brother out of the prison which he himself had helped design, by having himself sent to the same prison, and breaking out. Along the way, he picked up a cadre of associates, some by design, but others through discovery and resultant extortion.

Season One ended with a grand total of eight escapees breaking out, while another died in the attempt and yet a tenth was apprehended. Season Two followed the pursuit of the convicts, who had gone their separate ways. Over the course of the season, three of them would meet their demise at the hands of the rogue FBI agent assigned to track them down but who was in reality working for the same shadowy “Company” responsible for the false imprisonment of the older brother. This organization has members at the highest level of government and industry, including the then-President of the United States. The season reached it’s near-conclusion with her stepping down, but the two brothers-Michael Scoffield (Wentworth Miller) and Lincoln Burrows (Dominic Purcell) were obliged to leave the country, the company still tracking their movements to Panama where-lo and behold-they have an agent currently held in a prison called Sona.

The mysterious company boss who up until now has said very little, communicating with his subordinates chiefly by way of handwritten notes (due to paranoia over satellite surveillance), decides to make lemon out of lemonade. He tells his subordinate, Bill Kim, to murder Lincoln Burrows, somehow inexplicably and unexplainably frame Scoffield, arrange for his incarceration in Sona, and somehow hope that he can be convinced to break their comrade out of the hellish prison. Things don’t go exactly according to plan. Kim is killed by Sarah Tancredi (Sarah Wayne Callies) the prison doctor and daughter of the late Illinois Governor whom Michael manipulated as part of his complex escape plan from Fox River, who subsequently attempted suicide, recovered only to find herself out of a job and in danger or prosecution, and the target of one Agent Kellerman (Paul Adelmann), the murderous company operative who has been the chief enforcer for the Company up until this point. When he sees just how expendable he himself is, he betrays the company and saves the brothers and Tancredi, and then is later apparently murdered.

Nevertheless, by the end of Season Two, Scoffield, who has taken the blame for the murder of Kim to protect Tancredi, is, of course, sent to Sona. By the time the unfortunately abbreviated season three begins, it looks like the gang is all here. Scoffield is joined by Agent Mahone (William Fichtner), his chief antagonist for Season Two who himself runs afoul of the Panamanian authorities; by Brad Bellick, the disgraced season one Chief Corrections Officer of Fox River turned season two bounty hunter; and by Theodore “T-Bag” Bagwell (Robert Knepper), the murderous rapist pedophile who in season one extorted his way in on the escape plan, and who in season two left a bloody trail that stretched from Illinois, to Kansas, to Atlanta, and on down to Mexico and Panama.

Season Three’s Sona was a different situation. There were no guards since an earlier prison riot, though guards controlled the outer perimeter of the prison to prevent escapes, and delivered supplies. The straw boss of the prison was a drug lord named Norman St. John, called Lechero due to his earlier brutal murder of the man who raped his immigrant mother, which he accomplished by disguising himself as a milk man. He received compensation in the form of various considerable privileges in return for running Sona on the inside as a kind of controlled chaos that amounted to survival of the fittest.

The Company wanted Scoffield to find and break out James Whistler (Chris Vance), one of its operatives who had a secret coded book that contained information they needed. They did this by abducting the aforementioned Sarah Tancredi and L J Burrows (Marshall Almann), who is Scoffields nephew and Burrows’s son. Scoffield eventually accomplished the task while simultaneously tricking Bellick and Bagwell into being captured, along with Lechero, who was shot by the guards and subsequently murdered by Bagwell. Nevertheless he escaped with Whistler and a young car thief named MacGrady, along with Mahone, while his good buddy Fernando Sucre’ (Amaurie Nolasco) one of the original “Fox River Eight”, was captured and imprisoned within Sona for aiding in the escape by getting a job at Sona as a grave digger.

Scoffield managed to deliver the goods in the form of Whistler, who had lost the bird book (which was found by Bagwell) and rescued his nephew from the clutches of the evil Gretchen Morgan (Jody Lynn O’Keefe), but it was too late for Sarah Tancredi, who Morgan had earlier beheaded as a warning shot heard round the world. There were screams and gasps and cries of horror, grief, and outrage when the dastardly deed culminated in the head delivered in a box to the rented room of Lincoln Burrows-not from Burrows, however, nor even from Scoffield, but from the so-called MiSa fans who wrote petitions and trolled fan sites demanding that the show revive Tancredi, who had actually left the show due to a contractural dispute.

See, they had originally intended her suicide attempt at the end of Season One to be successful, but some of the brass balked on that idea and decided the Scoffield/Tancredi relationship had dramatic potential. By the end of Season Two, Sarah Wayne Callies was pregnant, and so was not available for a good part of Season Three, at which point somebody decided to kill her off during the fall finale, around episode thirteen. She refused to play along, and so they killed her off in episode three.

Thanks to the deluge of e-mails, letters, and phone calls from MiSa fans, however, Fox relented, and now Sarah Tancredi is back for Season Four, much to the chagrin of the larger portion of fans who would just as soon she stayed dead and gone. Any relationship between these two in the real world would be based on guilt. Sure, forgiveness is fine, but the fact is, the “chemistry” between these two is nonexistent at best, and it shows. In fact, it adds nothing to the show. Nothing, nada, zilch. The people who make up the MiSa Universe are obviously gay guys and teenage virgins, along with not a few sexually frustrated women who probably have their fingers up their cunts every time these two are on the screen together, though why for the life of me I will never know. Living vicariously through television romances are never the sign of a healthy emotional state. I have an idea it has something to do with broken romances and betrayals in their own lives that never worked out to their own satisfaction.

Be that as it may, Fox Networks evidently saw the opportunity to boost ratings on the show, and Wentworth Miller, being the good company man he is, has assured us all he is happy that Callies has returned to the show. Of course this is bullshit.

It’s always good to know people who work in Hollywood, especially when it is people who work behind the scenes of your favorite television show. I in fact know three such people who work on Prison Break, though unfortunately I have fallen out of contact with one, who happens to be the one I procured this picture from.



One of the others has kindly shared with me the story of how not only Miller really feels about Callie, but a great many other of the show’s cast as well. Following is a reproduction on an e-mail he sent me regarding my queries. Naturally, I can’t reveal the name of the individual or his position at Fox Network of on the show. Be that as it may, the following is his description of an occurrence on the set one day after the filming of Episode Three and Four, at the beginning of which Lincoln Burrows peered into the box left at his home to see the head of Sarah Tancredi. It seems that the head in question was a set piece around the studios for quite a few days, almost you might say a decoration that was the subject of a considerable amount of mirth and camaraderie. The way he puts it-

But they had the head on the sets a couple of days. When they had it over at the indoor set all the guy actors were there that day and were, well, being guys...trying to out-macho each other. First Wade walks in with it in his pants - those tony tiger pants - so it looked like he had a giant tumor. Wentworth is the first one to reach into Wades pants and pull the head out (that sounds dirty!). He puts the mouth up to his crotch holding it by the hair with one hand, slapping it with the other saying s*** like "Yeah take that bitch. Teach you to complain about screen time". They pretty much all took turns and all of 'em (except Knepper if I remember) had the head in their crotch calling her bitch, save some for me, etc. It was pretty raunchy. There were only about five or eight of us there that day and only a couple of us standing around to the side watching. They all took pictures and had the head sitting in SWC's chair (odd they kept it!) and again putting both their crotch and ass in the head's face. I grabbed one of the makeup ladies walking by, she was laughing so hard she was crying, and asked her right out if they really hated her that much. She told me YES, they could not stand the sight of her.

It was kind of fun!


So there you have it. I would like to see the show return to its former ratings, but if those of the last two weeks are any indication, this might be unlikely. The phony relationship between Miller and Tancredi is a drain on the show, and I have an idea the morale of the cast is probably at an all-time low. After all, there aren’t many of them who have a shot at returning in the event the studios decide they are no longer needed.

In fact, Wade Williams, who has played Brad Bellick since the beginning of the show and is in the current season now an ally of Scoffield, and like him is one of the group procured by Agent Don Self (Michael Rappaport) to help bring down the Company, is set to be killed off in episode nine. The discovery of his body in the sewers causes a problem for the operation. All of them involved in the operation-Scoffield, Burrows, Bellick, Sucre, Tancredi, Mahone, and a new character who is a young nerdy computer hacker-are officially supposed to be in a Supermax prison, the cover story invented to disguise the true nature of their work on the outside. (T-Bag of course is working at cross purposes against them and over time will become allied with Gretchen).

When Bellick dies, they all learn the truth. They are being used by the people conducting the operation to bring down the Company, and these people have no intention of honoring their previous commitments to them as expressed by Self. Bellick's body will be kept in cold storage, his remains will not be turned over to his mother, nor will he get the funeral he and the others were promised. His reward is a space in a morgue freezer, where his demise will remain unknown and unmourned.

So one of the best actors on the show is soon to be gone, while the mediocre at best Callies is probably safe from now until the series finally ends, more than likely after this season concludes. Its just too bad the Fox Network executives have not caught on to the idea that Callies role is not only not needed, but for the majority of fans, it might even be said to be unwanted and possibly to an extent even resented.

But she bitches about her screen time.

Guess Who This Is

Who am I?

I am under 45 years old
I love the outdoors
I hunt
I am a Republican reformer
I have taken on the Republican Party establishment
I have many children
I have a spot on the national ticket with less than two
years in the governor's office

Who am I?





I am Teddy Roosevelt in 1900.

His image stands alongside Washington, Jefferson and Lincoln on Mount Rushmore. Surveys of scholars have consistently ranked him from third to seventh on the list of greatest American presidents.

Yo, I ranked him at number seven myself. Not too shabby for such an "inexperienced" guy.

The Obamassiah Gets Crowned-Soon To Be Hung Out To Dry by Pretty Moose Hunting Governor

WHAT THE FUCK?

"Jesus was a community organizer. Pontius Pilate was a governor."

WHAT THE FUCK?

Are these people out of their fucking minds? It's one thing when a bunch of internet losers and media jackals say shit like this, but when you hear it from the mouth of an elected member of the House of Representatives-on the house floor no less-you know the Democratic Party has sunk to the lowest depths to which they could possibly sink. That's depths PLURAL-the triple d's-Democrats, Depravity, and Despair.


Tennessee Rep. Steve Cohen riled Republicans Wednesday after he compared Barack Obama to Jesus Christ and suggested Sarah Palin is akin to Pontius Pilate.

The Tennessee Democrat, who supports Obama, was on the House floor giving a one-minute speech when he offered the comparisons.

I guess I could cut him some slack, since if his boy does get beat it will be chiefly (if not solely) due to Sarah Palin, but shit. One thing about arrogance, it doesn't mix too well with insanity.

I guess these people really do see Obama as a Messiah figure after all, but I used to figure it was on some deep subconscious level. Well this seems pretty damn conscious to me.

Does this make Bill Ayers Simon the Zealot? Haul in Teddy Kennedy to play the part of Nicodemus and we're all set. Bill Clinton and Hillary seem perfectly typecast as Herod Antipas and Herodias.

"So, you're Jesus Christ
You're the great Jesus Christ
Prove to me that you're divine
Turn my water into wine"

The kind you have with Bree, of course.

I'm really serious, do these people actually think this stuff up? I thought people usually said stupid things off the top of their heads, but I guess Democrats actually put thought into this kind of shit.

I'm trying to resist the urge to say something about whips, but damn there I just went and did it.

As Pure As The Driven Slush

Russell Brand’s performance at the MTV VMA Awards has got a lot of people upset, but what can you expect from a man who shows up to work the day after 9/11 dressed as Osama Bin Laden? The most incredible thing about that stunt in context to his appearance as host of these awards is that he happened to be working for MTV at the time. They fired him on the spot.

Brand is evidently a young, hip, British Don Rickles type of insult comedian with a Phyllis Diller hairdo. I think of him as a reactionary comedian, in the sense that his comedy, such as it is, depends on eliciting the expectation of a visceral response from the targets of his routine, not so much by himself as much as by his audience.

In his opening act at the VMA Awards, he immediately requested that we vote for Barak Obama, even though he acknowledged there were many here in this country-“I think they’re called racists”, he said-who don’t think America is ready for a black president. He went on to say that he believed America to be a forward looking country, otherwise they would not have elected that “retarded cowboy” (Bush) for eight years, going on to say that in Britain Bush would not be trusted with a pair of scissors.

He mentioned McCain and Sarah Palin as well, but mostly in the context of the pregnancy of Palin’s unmarried teenage daughter. He expressed mock sympathy for the girl’s boyfriend in that one minute he was enjoying himself having sex and the next thing you know there he is being dragged to the Republican National Convention, going on to say that was the best possible inducement to chastity.

This all provided lead-in to an extended jab at the boy band and Disney stars The Jonas Brothers, who appeared and performed at the awards show. Brand mercilessly derided them for their public vows to remain chaste until marriage and their choosing to wear “promise rings” as a sign of this commitment, Brand saying he would be more impressed if they wore the rings on their penises.

The Jonas Brothers were recipients of several other such jabs by the comedian. Former American Idol season six winner Jordan Sparks defended the brothers, explaining that not all boys and girls wanted to be sluts. Brand then apologized but tempered this with the explanation that a little sex every now and then was all right.

It is worth noting here that Brand is a known hedonist and sex addict. He spent a month at a rehab facility, at the insistence of his management, during which he spent a harrowing period as the roommate of an Arizona pedophile who had “eloped” with his thirteen-year-old stepdaughter. Brand toughed it out and stayed at the facility for the duration of his commitment. Yet, he has the reputation of a man with a voracious sexual appetite. He traces this to the time when, at the age of seventeen, his father availed for him the services of a Hong Kong prostitute.

Some security guards caught him once having sex with two female companions in a public bathroom and ordered him off the premises, to which he later returned the same night. He has said he finds it impossible to achieve any degree of sexual satisfaction and finds himself continuously trying to fill that void, oftentimes with two female partners at a time, seldom with the same one or two women two nights in a row.

When you look at his life, then, it becomes easy to see why such a lifestyle commitment publicly made by the Jonas Brothers is so incomprehensible to him. At the VMA Awards, he pointed out the Jonas Brothers could have sex with any woman they wanted.

Russell Brand, frankly, is not funny to me, but by the same token, I don’t view him as particularly offensive. Had he not, at almost the very beginning of his routine, made such an overtly partisan request that we in America vote for Obama for “the world’s sake”, I doubt that his other political comments would have raised many eyebrows. He would be just another big-mouthed leftist comedian to his detractors, but otherwise the story would have gone away by now with little notice, if any.

The Jonas Brothers-now them I find offensive. Their alleged music is just a part of the reason, though assuredly quite a big part. I’ve admittedly only heard bits and pieces of it. Nevertheless, if you one day accidentally swallow a heaping tablespoon of shit, I hardly think you are required to eat the entire bowl before you know what you’re dealing with.

That said, they are not the first trite, mediocre musicians, nor will they be the last. I do not particularly mind that they have made a commitment to chastity either, but putting the two together is just a little much. I have to wonder if the public commitment, such as it is, is just another part of their overall show business package. Perhaps it’s an inducement for parents to feel good about allowing their kids to watch them, listen to them, buy their recordings, all on the grounds that they are pure and wholesome family entertainment, the type of teen idols you want your own kids to emulate. All the while, you and your kid are all getting fucked, but good.

For this reason, I do find them offensive, and Russell Brands bit about them at the VMA Awards, while admittedly over-the-top, was as funny as anything I’d ever heard him do. This in fact has attracted as much notice-and criticism-as his political comments. I think Russell has their number, and it makes a lot of us wince in embarrassment. One time the camera panned over to the Jonas Brothers, sitting in the audience, looking like deer caught in the headlights.

The oldest of the Jonas Brothers is twenty-one years old.

Collission Course

Some scientists fear that, as of Wednesday, the world as we know it may be doomed due to the experiments of one man. From The Daily Mail-

Dr Lyn Evans, who has been dubbed Evans the Atom, will this week switch on a giant particle accelerator designed to unlock the secrets of the Big Bang.

On Wednesday, Dr Evans will fire up the Large Hadron Collider, a 17-mile-long doughnut-shaped tunnel that will smash sub-atomic particles together at nearly the speed of light.

Built by the European Organisation for Nuclear Research (CERN), the collider lies beneath the French-Swiss border, near the institution’s headquarters in Geneva, at depths ranging from 170ft to 600ft.

The aim of the £4.4billion experiment is to recreate the conditions that existed a fraction of a second after the Big Bang – the birth of the universe – and provide vital clues to the building blocks of life.

It will track the spray of particles thrown out by collisions in a search for the elusive Higgs Boson, a theoretical entity that supposedly lends weight, or mass, to the elementary particles. So important is this mysterious substance that it has been called the ‘God Particle’.

Scientists also hope to shed some light on the invisible material that exists between particles – dubbed ‘dark matter’ as no one knows what it really is – which makes up most of the universe.

If all that is over your head, however, do not despair. This rap song-

Written and performed by 23-year-old Kate McAlpine, who works in the Press office at the CERN laboratory in Switzerland, the video features Kate and two background dancers bopping about in lab coats

Will explain it in layman's language.

Don't Look Now

Correction-

Katie has informed me that, while she plays the cello, she doesn't consider herself a cellist, and does not play that instrument for Lunic. Correction is noted and made in the post.

Kaitee Page is an artist who deserves to be listened to, a classically trained musician and alternative rock artist who plays the violin, viola, and piano, and is the lead singer of a group called Lunic. Her MySpace page contains her newest studio release, which includes Don't Look Now. The sound is very good, and I am going to predict you will be hearing from Kaitee at some point.

Here is a video of Don't Look Now, which is a live acoustic version.



The following picture is just one among many others from her MySpace page.

It's Really All Quite Simple

This post by Rufus over on Grad Student Madness is a perfect illustration of why, when I hear American politicians-and yes, this includes my new gal crush Sarah Palin-wax on about the evils and dangers of Russia and the resurgent "Russian Empire", my reaction is a great big old-

YAAAAAAAWWWWWWNNNNNNNNNN!

That's my reaction when I'm in a good mood, mind you.

Before I continue, let me point out the Democrats are not one iota better in this case. In fact, they are worse. At least the Republicans want us to lead NATO and our European "allies" that make it up, whereas Democrats, if the truth were known, want to make us de facto members of the fucking EU.

Let's take this one step at a time, kiddies. You're being conned. This whole deal is an attempt to insure increased funding for NATO and from there, increased sells of weapons systems from our own manufacturers, yes, but evidently also from Israel.

In the meantime, this ill-advised attempt to draw Georgia into the framework of NATO is nothing more than a first step toward membership in the EU. I encourage you to click on the link and take a good long look at just what the EU is really all about.

In case you don't want to, I'll tell you anyway. They're going to ban "sexist advertising". Let me explain how this process works. To do so, we'll use Rufus's example of how they might ban an advertisement that depicts a man out washing the car while the woman of the house, his wife, is inside cooking supper. They might do so on the grounds that this is encouraging "sexist stereotyping".

Bear in mind, it would be bad enough if the governments of England and France, for example, passed such a crazy law. However,this isn't even that benign. What is happening here is a bunch of ivory tower bureaucrats in Brussels might well pass this insane law, at which point England and France, and all other signatory members of the EU, will be obliged to adhere to it. This would include Georgia, in the event they become a member of the EU, which they evidently want to be, even though they have to know all this.

Now, I want to ask all my conservative and libertarian friends one simple, straightforward question. If Russia were to swoop through Europe tomorrow, take over the entire fucking continent, rule it with an iron hand from that day on, and put every current leader of the EU to death-

Do you see now why I don't give a big flying fuck?

The Party Of Freedom Of Speech

Most Democrats will tell you (if they think you're a loyal Democrat at least) that terrorism is a "law-enforcement matter", not a military problem.

Well, I guess that would explain the high level of security during the Democratic party convention in Denver. A visiting Chinese government official just leaving the Olympics might wonder if he had ever left Beijing.

There were some protesters, of course, but way on the outer periphery, and who received no coverage to speak of, at least not by the mainstream media. They were mostly Code Pink whack jobs and were mostly relegated to approved areas.

By way of contrast, the protests during the Republican Convention in Minneapolis received quite a bit more coverage, both that from outside the convention and inside the convention.

Yes, the Republicans allowed some protesters inside the convention. While McCain spoke, one man held up a large banner that said, in huge letters-

McCAIN VOTES AGAINST VETERANS

The cameras flashed over to the guy several times, standing in front of the large sign that was never removed, nor was the man harassed at any point during the two or three times the cameras focused on him.

The most bizarre occurrence was when some woman made her way down the aisle, shouting something that was inaudible, as the crowd pretty much shouted over her. The woman actually started removing her clothes to reveal pink underclothing, a slip or thin gown of some sort, before she was finally physically escorted out and away, straining the entire time to resist the guard who finally removed her.

All of this was in the middle of McCain's speech, right in the middle of the convention hall, right in the middle of thousands of Republican delegates who did nothing other than drown out whatever tirade she was unleashing. Bear in mind she made it halfway through the crowd from somewhere near the back of the auditorium, screaming and shouting the whole time, and didn't start removing her outer clothing until a guard already tried to restrain her from moving any further towards McCain. Once she finally crossed the line, she was escorted out.

What party is it again that believes in free speech and freedom of expression?

What Comes First?

It went by so fast I thought I might have been the only person who might have caught the most unintentionally hilarious line at tonight's Republican convention, but it looks like Wonkette caught it too. As they put it-

9:05 PM — John McCain’s dad had him bombed, but it didn’t work.

That's just a part of their play by play, of couse, up until shortly before McCain's speech at ten, which was actually much better than I thought it would be, even if it wasn't quite up to the level of his running mate.

It was also very moving. Still, there's one thing that bothered me, and even stuck in my craw, and its the same thing that always sticks in my craw about these things-the country first theme of the night.

Okay, I know that might sound unpatriotic to some, but I can't help but feel a little uneasy when a politician tells me I should put my country ahead of my own self-interest-especially when he's telling me that while trying to convince me to vote for him to lead that same country he's insisting I should put ahead of my own self-interest.

"Ask not what your country can do for you. Ask what you can do for your country."

It sounds like a noble sentiment, but its a dangerous one, for the simple fact that way too many people, probably two thirds of them at least, have this unfortunate tendency to confuse "country" with "government". That's because people are, despite their pretensions, simple-minded folks who don't really know any better.

It's sort of like the old, old woman from the old country who genuflects in front of an icon of the Virgin Mary or some other saint, or Christ for that matter, and who when questioned insists she is not practicing idolatry. No, she will have you know, she is just using the image of the saint-or Christ-to focus her prayers to the actual saint-or to Christ-who dwells in heaven. She is using the image as a channel of sorts for her to direct her prayers to the genuine article.

And, of course, she is right. That is exactly what she's doing.

In other words, she is practicing idolatry.

In a somewhat similar vein, people who put their country before their own self-interest usually do so at the behest of some government entity. They are not really putting country first. They are putting government first, because that is the entity they are really bowing to. Whatever their stated intentions, that way too often is the actual fact of the matter. Or at least it all too often ends up that way.

People that truly want to put country first-not the government, but the country-are actually looking out for their own self-interest, and moreover they are well advised to do just that.

Hell, that's why our forefathers came here to begin with. The very act of leaving their original homelands and making the dangerous, uncertain journey to these shores involved looking out for their own self-interests, despite the hardships and sacrifices involved. They were looking at the bigger picture. They wanted something more. They wanted a life in a world where they might pursue their dreams of a better life. Failure meant misery and possibly death, but that was an irrelevant consideration. They felt they had nothing worth living for at the time anyway.

Since that time we as a nation, dedicated to individual rights and liberty, have consistently looked out for our own best interests. We do this collectively and individually. Why the hell else vote? Wouldn't it be kind of stupid to return to the kind of life our forefathers left, out of some misguided notion that we should "put country first"? Well, taken to its logical extreme, that's what it could lead to. I don't know about anybody else, but I don't intend to go that route.

Remember, "We The People" are the country. Right? The government is supposed to be our servants. McCain might well get that-in fact, I'll gladly take him at his word that he does-but I'm not so sure most people do, and that scares the hell out of me.

Been There Done That-Three Times

What can I say? I seem to have this ill-advised attraction to assertive women. You know, the kind that can be violent in a good many cases. The first time was the time I was briefly married. Yeah, we'll skip by that one, and the next one too.

That third time was the one this song reminds me of, as the situation was so similar it's pretty damned eerie. The bit about looking out the window waiting for someone to pass by is especially surreal. I was really wanting to be with somebody else at the time, and still do. With my luck, of course, she would end up killing me.

This anime version takes the sting out of the song, which is Pulling Teeth by Green Day from the CD Dookie. Kind of cathartic, and even cool-which probably means I haven't learned my lesson yet.

Ch-Ch-Ch-Ch-Chaanges

Before I hit the sack, just a note to all those wanting to cuss me out for my sudden change of mind with this announcement of support for the Palin-McCain ticket not even a month after declaring neutrality. I might not be on line tomorrow nor most of Tuesday, and possibly not until Wednesday. If so, it is not due to my withering and cowering in the face of your heated onslaughts, nor will I be staring up at my ceiling in a daze at my latest Sarah Palin poster-not all that time anyway.

In fact, I am now in the process of transitioning over to broadband internet through my phone company, which is extra special cool due to the fact that now I can be on-line without tying up the phone. The ironic thing is, I won't have to be on-line as much as I am now, because it will take less time to do all the stuff I do. Of course, I might well do more.

Which means that, from that point on-yes, I too can post shitty little YouTube videos.

Until that time-

PALIN-McCAIN '08

Woman Of The People

Here's something else I like about Sarah Palin, something you rarely hear mentioned. She is not a career politician, but is instead close to the people she serves. She is, in fact, "one of us". That in itself makes up for her alleged "lack of experience", which is actually overstated on the part of her political foes. She does at least have some executive experience.



To be fair, Joe Biden, despite the fact that he has been a Washington insider for a good many years, has also made a concerted effort to stay close to the people he serves as the senior Senator from Delaware.

Still, there's some things Joe Biden just can't do.






I have this strange feeling that, shortly following this years presidential election, Tina Faye will make a return appearance as guest host on Saturday Night Live. She should stick to 30 Rock, which is actually quite funny, and where she is actually very good.

Be that as it may, I stole these pictures from the blog of the Kahanist Jew Mad Zionist, whom I suspect is torturing himself, while I have no qualms about committing the "sin" of Onanism.

Let's face it. This is America, by God, and the first female President or Vice-President should be hot. The fact that she's also strong-willed, independent, tough, and smart-well, that's all just gravy. Speaking of which-

Mysterious Ways

Alaska Republican Governor Sarah Palin, chosen by John McCain as his Vice-Presidential running mate, is a damn good choice. She has a lot to recommend her to everyone except radical leftists, whose numbers are too meager to start out with to make a difference, and who would not vote for a Republican candidate regardless.

Yet, when she ran for governor, it was at the head of a reform ticket. Palin was instrumental in fighting her states powerful US Senator, fellow Republican Ted Stevens, when he appropriated the boondoggle known forevermore as the "Bridge to Nowhere" and has been a crusader for ethics reform in general.

She is a staunch and tireless advocate of developing her states, and the nations, bountiful reserves of oil and natural gas. At the same time, she has been an advocate of legitimate environmental concerns and responsible management. I think she is even publicly on record as on the opposing side of the Exxon Mobil Corporation over the Exxon Valdez Affair.

She is a long standing member of the NRA and a tireless advocate of Second Amendment rights. She is in fact a huntress, and among her favorite dishes is "moose burgers".

The more I look at all of this, the more she reminds me of the lady whose picture adorns the header of this blog, despite the face that she is a Christan, a member of the "Assemblies of God", the same Christian denomination of which John Ashcroft is a member. She is pro-life, but these days that is to me an ever increasingly distant concern anyway, especially seeing as how the "pro-choice" crowd seems to be in favor of almost everything else that I'm against, and against almost everything else that I'm in favor of. And hey, when you stop to think about it, Artemis would probably be pro-life, being the patroness of childbirth. Her brother Apollo in fact inspired the Hippocratic Oath, which in its original form included a vow not to perform abortions.

The only thing I have heard about her so far that gives me enough pause to seriously consider opposing her is the fact that she supports the teaching of "Creationism", or to use the latest euphemism, "Intelligent Design", presumably in public school science classes.

This I find troubling, and I'm sure as time goes on I will discover some other things about her positions that I also find dubious.

Be that as it may, nobody's perfect. She comes awful damn close, though. I might not set this one out after all.

The only problem I can see with her from a tactical standpoint is that it kind of lessens McCain's argument about Obama's lack of experience to choose a running mate who has had less than two years experience as the governor of a state. Prior to that she was a city council woman and then mayor of a very small town of Alaska. Yet, if the ticket wins, she is just a heartbeat away from succeeding to the presidency under a man who just this day turned seventy two years old and who has suffered bouts of melanoma.

Maybe the goddess is manipulating things behind the scenes-or will.

Well, hell, we've put up with Dick "Darth Vader" Cheney for eight years. Sarah "Artemis" Palin would have to be a vast improvement.

Riddle

How can you tell when an American has turned into a squishy, wet, gushing, quivering giant PUSSY?

(Scroll down for the answer)







































When he has this Russian hiding under his bed at night ready to climb out any minute and get the poor little feller. Awwww-

Joe Biden-Paving The Way For The Future

Sometime late last night in Springfield Illinois, Barak Obama nominated his successor to the studied halls of presidential contenders. The Democratic nominee-in-waiting for 2012 is now revealed to be Joseph Biden, Delaware Democrat, who stands out in two different ways, both from the majority of the pack of Democratic candidates for this years Democratic Party nomination, and from the Democratic vice-presidential nominees of the last two election cycles.

In the first case, Biden, unlike most of the rest-including Obama and, for that matter, Hillary Clinton-is eminently qualified to be president.

In the second case, he is the first VP contender since Al Gore actually to have a chance not only of winning an election but of having a chance to win his party’s nomination.

Liebermann demonstrated in the 2000 election that he did not have what it takes to conduct a campaign for a national office-the killer instinct absolutely demanded by most primary voters. Neither did the foolish, foppish, narcissistic John Edwards. Nor did any of these men have what is perhaps the most important quality of all, that one most necessary to represent a major political party in a national election.

Republicans and Democrats share one important quality. When they look at a potential candidate, and they hear that candidate speak, they like to think they could easily be looking in a mirror. Liebermann-or, as a large segment of Democratic voters now call him, LIEbermann and/or Holy Joe-is far too independent to represent the wishes and aspirations of most Democrats. Edwards, truly the self-righteous one of the pair, has a different problem. He fits the image a little too nicely. Democrats do see themselves in him, but the problem is, they just don’t like what they see.

Joe Biden crosses an important bridge. He comes across as a regular guy, very much like George W. Bush, yet at the same time presents the image of a highly, in fact an eminently qualified man, much like John McCain, yet with neither of those individuals minuses.

To be sure, he is not the perfect candidate. Although he has that Everyman appeal necessary to win the general election, his biggest drawback toward winning the Democratic nomination in 2012, unfortunately, is the fact that he might in fact too easily appeal to that broad spectrum of voter. This is the true story of Obama’s rise. It was a campaign based not on experience or qualification, but on image. It was the politics of hope. Glossed over somehow is the fact that Obama’s rise in politics and to the national stage came about under the impetus of corrupt Chicago machine politics.

As this campaign season gets under way, look for Joseph Biden to be everything the Democratic Party rank-and-file could possibly hope for in a vice-presidential candidate. He will be brutal. He will give as well or better than he gets. I also have a strong suspicion that, more often than not, he will give it first.

After all, this is more than anything an audition. He has an election to prepare for, one that he might very possibly win.

Four years from now.

Changing America-Yes We Can

The association of Barak Obama with former Weather Underground radical terrorist Willaim Ayers has been the subject of much conjecture and criticism, some people claiming this is a sign that Obama just doesn’t share the values of ordinary Americans. This post from the Huffington Post details a controversy over an advertisement, created by an independent group, which claims that this proves Obama is not fit to be President.

Obama supporters claim the group has broken the law, because corporations, companies, and organizations cannot engage in direct advertising against a particular party or candidate. However, even if the ad is pulled, doubtless it will eventually resurface in a way that will conform to the law.

My feeling is, why overreact? As the old saying goes, looks can be deceiving. That applies to personal associations as well.

Let’s try to imagine a positive spin on this matter. Many people are speculating as to the identity of Obama’s soon-to-be announced running mate. He has said it will be someone ready to lead, a person with a depth of experience who can “challenge his thinking”.

That got me to thinking. What if he has special plans for Mr. Ayers, plans for which his past history, far from disqualifying him, might instead make him eminently qualified for certain positions.

I propose then that Barak Obama might well seriously consider appointing William Ayers as his “Terrorism Czar”.

After all, as a current University professor, he is obviously intelligent, but more to the point, his experience makes him a reliable voice of expertise. I can envision a future private meeting between-

Obama and Terrorism Czar William Ayers

President Obama-You know, Bill, I was thinking of going to Texas and making a speech in an effort to promote my Comprehensive Immigration Reform Bill. What do you think about the idea of giving it at The Alamao?

Terrorism Czar Ayers-Well, I don’t know, Barak, you’d better let me go through the range of possible scenarios with my staff, just to be on the safe side, so we’ll know what maybe to expect and for what contingencies to prepare.

President Obama-Surely you don’t think someone would try to blow up an American landmark like the Alamo do you?

Terrorism Czar Ayers-Well, I always wanted to. I tell you what, let me look over some of my old diaries and maybe I can help you prepare for any possibility. I doubt that anybody has considered anything that I never thought about.

Of course, that is only one possibility. He could also name Ayers Secretary of Education, since that is now his chosen profession. Or, he could name him White House Chief of Staff, seeing as he has management experience. FBI Director is also not out of the question, as he seems to have amassed a considerable body of experience with them as well.

It would be a shame for the talents of this remarkable man to go to waste, and I’m sure Obama can certainly think of something that would make William Ayers the living embodiment of “change we can believe in.”

A Health Care Solution For Veterans

If you want a job where you can miss days, weeks, or even months and not get canned, I have just the job for you. It's called The Veterans Administration, which wastes more than ten billion dollars a year due to worker absenteeism. The second highest offender is, believe it or not-the Treasury Department.

It's not that they are not aware of the infractions. After all, at least they don't pay them. Nevertheless, it still costs the Departments money in lost productivity.

I have thought for some time the VA needs to get the axe. Why is it even necessary? Why not simply allow veterans to have their medical needs covered by the government but at the same time simply go to their neighborhood doctors, hospitals, and pharmacists, right in their own home towns, as opposed to traveling sometimes in excess of one hundred miles round trip and still having to wait half a day-at least-for substandard care. The VA is a bureaucratic nightmare, and though understaffed and underfunded, still wastes billions of dollars annually.

Is it the image of the VA that we are so enthralled with, the idea that we just should have something like that? It's a mess. I can see having a special facility like Walter Reed for special cases that require extensive recuperative therapy and the kind of surgeries and treatments you cant get at a regular hospital, but for the most part most of the veterans would be far better served by their own hometown doctors and, when necessary, their referred-to-specialists.

It would certainly be cost effective, and veterans would, for the most part, get something they don't now get as a general rule-quality care.

NATO-Time To Go The Way Of The Dodo Bird

Correction-Renegade Eye has just informed me that this post is not from a Marxist perspective, an assumption I made based on the title of the publication-Dissident Voice-in which it appeared, as much as to Ren's own Trotskyist leanings. He sent it to me based on his awareness of my opposition to the continuance of NATO as an international body and my objections to its role in the current Russian/Georgian/South Ossetian/European dispute. Or, more concisely, my objections to the leadership role of the US in the matter via NATO.

The following article is courtesy of Renegade Eye. It is written from a socialist perspective, by Canadian economist Rodrique Tremblay. I do not agree with every detail, but I am in agreement with the overall theme, the need to disband NATO. He seems to think NATO is a tool by which the US can get its way in the world. This is one big area in which I disagree with his assessment. I think he is putting the cart before the horse. If anything, Europe is the master of the house and the US is the little lapdog who falsely assumes that he is the center of the known and unknown universe.

Also, Tremblay seems to regard the UN as the proper vehicle for world affairs. I think both bodies should be disbanded. At any rate, and with the preceding caveats in mind, I thought I would present the article for consideration. Anybody that wants to end NATO deserves a hearing.

Nevertheless, I also disagree with his conclusion, in which he states that-

"In conclusion, it would seem that the humanist idea of having peace, free
trade and international law as the foundations of the world order is being
cast aside in favor of a return to great power politics and gunboat
diplomacy. This is a 100-year setback."

If I thought he was right about that, I would be NATO's biggest cheerleader.


Why Not Simply Abolish NATO?
by Rodrigue Tremblay
August 19th, 2008
Dissident Voice

[NATO's goal is] to keep the Russians out, the Americans in, and the
Germans down.
- Lord Ismay, first NATO Secretary-General

We should immediately call a meeting of the North Atlantic Council to
assess Georgia's security and review measures NATO can take to contribute
to stabilizing this very dangerous situation.
- Sen. John McCain, (August 8, 2008)

If we would have preemptively worked with Russia, with Georgia, making
sure that NATO had the kind of ability and the presence and the
engagement, we could have perhaps avoided this [the invasion of S. Ossetia
by Georgia and the subsequent Russian response].
- Tom Daschle, former Senate Majority Leader and adviser to Sen. Barack
Obama, (August 17, 2008)

Of all the enemies to public liberty, war is perhaps the most to be
dreaded because it comprises and develops the germ of every other.
- James Madison (1751-1836), fourth American President

The North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) is a relic of the Cold War.
It was created on April 4, 1949 as a defensive alliance of Western Europe
countries plus Canada and the United States to protect the former
countries from encroachments by the Soviet Union.

But since 1991, the Soviet empire no longer exists and Russia has been
cooperating economically with Western European countries, supplying them
with gas and oil, and all types of commodities. This has increased
European economic interdependence and thus greatly reduced the need for
such a defensive military alliance above and beyond European countries'
own self-defense military system.

But the U.S. government does not see things that way. It would prefer
keeping its role as Europe's patronizing protector and as the world's sole
superpower. NATO is a convenient tool to that effect. But maybe the world
should be worried about those who go around the planet with a can of
gasoline in one hand and a box of matches in the other, pretending to sell
fire insurance.

As of now, it is a fact that the U.S. government and the American foreign
affairs nomenklatura see NATO as an important tool of American foreign
policy of intervention around the world. Since many American politicians
do not anymore support de facto the United Nations as the supreme
international organization devoted to maintaining peace in the world, a
U.S.-controlled NATO would seem to be, in their eyes, a most attractive
substitute to the United Nations for providing a legal front for their
otherwise illegal offensive military undertakings around the world. They
prefer to control totally a smaller organization such as NATO, even though
it has become a redundant institution, than to have to make compromises at
the U.N., where the U.S nevertheless has one of the five vetoes on the
Security Council.

That is the strong rationale behind the proposals to reshape, reorient and
enlarge NATO, in order to transform it into a flexible tool of American
foreign policy. This is another demonstration that redundant institutions
have a life of their own. Indeed, when the purpose for which they have
been initially established no longer exists, new purposes are invented to
keep them going.

Regarding NATO, the plan is to turn it into an aggrandized offensive
imperial U.S.-dominated political and military alliance against the rest
of the world. According to plan, NATO would be enlarged in the
Central-Eastern European region to include not only most of the former
members of the Warsaw Pact (Poland, the Czech Republic, Slovakia,
Bulgaria, Romania, Albania and Hungary) and many of the former republics
of the Soviet Union (Estonia, Lithuania, Latvia, Georgia and Ukraine), but
also in Asia to include Japan, Australia, New Zealand, South Korea, and
possibly admit Israel in the Middle East. Today the initially 12-member
NATO has mushroomed into a 26-member organization. In the future, if the
U.S. has its way, NATO could be a 40-member organization.

In the United States, both the Republicans and the Democrats see the old
NATO transformed into this new offensive military alliance as a good
(neocon) idea to promote American interests around the world, as well as
those of its close allies, such as Israel. It is not only an idea actively
promoted by the neocon Bush-Cheney administration, but also by the
neoconservative advisers to both 2008 American presidential candidates,
Sen. John McCain and Sen. Barack Obama.

Indeed, both 2008 presidential candidates are enthusiastic military
interventionists, and this is essentially because both rely on advisers
originating from the same neocon camp.

For instance, the rush with which the Bush-Cheney recklessly promised NATO
membership to the former Soviet republic of Georgia and American military
support and supply is a good example of how NATO is viewed in Washington
D.C. by both main American political parties. For one, Republican
presidential candidate John McCain envisages a new world order built
around a neocon-inspired "League of Democracies" that would de facto
replace the United Nations and through which the United States would rule
the world. Secondly, Sen. Barack Obama's position is not that far from
Sen. McCain's foreign policy proposals. Indeed, Sen. Obama advocates the
use of U.S. military force and multilateral military interventions in
regional crises, for "humanitarian purposes", even if by so doing, the
United Nations must be bypassed. Therefore, if he ever gains power, it is
a safe bet that Sen. Obama would not have any qualms about adopting Sen.
McCain's view of the world. For example, both presidential candidates
would probably support the removal of the no "first strike" clause from
the NATO convention. It can be taken for granted that with either
politician in the White House, the world would be a less lawful and a less
safe place, and would not be more advanced than it has become under the
lawless Bush-Cheney administration.

However, it is difficult to see how this new offensive role for NATO would
be in the interests of European countries or of Canada. Western Europe in
particular has everything to fear from a resurgence of the Cold War with
Russia, and possibly with China. The transformation of NATO from a North
Atlantic defensive military organization into a U.S.-led worldwide
offensive military organization is going to have profound international
geopolitical consequences around the world, but especially for Europe.
Europe has a strong economic attraction for Russia. Then why embark upon
the aggressive Bush-Cheney administration's policy of encircling Russia
militarily by expanding NATO right up to Russia's doorstep and by placing
a missile shields right next to Russia? Wouldn't it be better for Europe
to develop harmonious economic and political relations with Russia? Why
prepare the next war?

And as for Canada, under the neocon minority Harper government, it has
sadly become a de facto American colony as far as foreign affairs are
concerned, and this, without any serious debate or referendum to that
effect within Canada. The last thing Canada needs is to go further on that
mined road.

In conclusion, it would seem that the humanist idea of having peace, free
trade and international law as the foundations of the world order is being
cast aside in favor of a return to great power politics and gunboat
diplomacy. This is a 100-year setback.

It is a shame.

Rodrigue Tremblay is a Canadian economist who lives in Montreal; he can be
reached at: rodrigue.tremblay@yahoo.com. Check Dr. Tremblay's coming book
The Code for Global Ethics. Read other articles by Rodrigue, or visit
Rodrigue's website.

Venezuela-It's All Downhill From Here

Chavez has just taken over most of the concrete industry in Venezuela, in particular two European firms-LaFarge SA and Holcim Ltd.- though claiming to pay a "fair market" price in these "friendly" arrangements, and allowing for a small percentage of private ownership.

In the meantime, the amount of money he has spent, from the country's oil revenues, is detracting from the amount earlier promised for investment in social programs.

He also promised to invest the windfall oil profits in overseas drilling, but that too has gone by the wayside, it seems. Or, perhaps he was just being ironic.

He is now in arbitration with two American companies-Exxon Mobile and Conlico Phillips-who are demanding more for their own expropriated property than Chavez evidently was willing to pay. Hugo should have got the hint when they declined to attend the May Day ceremony to which they were invited to join in the "celebration" of the "deal".

In the meantime, we are left to ask-what happens in the future? Who now will invest in Venezuela? The companies recently nationalized have already seen a marked decline in their stock value.

Who wants to be the last investor to invest in a mistake?

Is it any wonder gas prices are off the charts?

Becky Hammon-Playing To Win

Becky Hammon is going to appear in the Olympics in the Women's Basketball Tournament, where she might well assist in scoring the gold for her team. The North Dakota Native and current point guard for the San Antonio Silver Stars will not, however, be playing for the American Womens Basketball team. Don't ask me why, just read this Wikipedia article and see if you can figure it out. I sure as hell can't.

At any rate, she is instead playing for Russia, and might possibly play in the semi-finals or for that matter the championship game against the American team. She hopes that doesn’t happen, she claims, but if it does, she will play to win.

I’m going to be cheering for her. Although she did not make the American team, she did make the attempt. The Russians accepted her, and she has been among the most consistently good all around player and highest scorer for the team, which stands now at four wins with just one loss. Unfortunately, she has also been the subject of speculation and controversy. The manager of the American Women’s team went so far as to accuse her of being “unpatriotic”.

Coach Anne Donovan, one of the most decorated figures in women's basketball and coach of the 2008 United States Women's Olympic Basketball team said concerning Hammon's decision, "If you play in this country, live in this country and you grow up in the heartland - and you put on a Russian uniform - you are not a patriotic person, in my mind."

Yes, seriously folks. So much for international dialogue and understanding.

Naturally, if Hammon played for most other teams, she would not be the subject of such unreasonable diatribes. If she were playing for some teams-Georgia comes to mind for some strange reason-many of these same people might even applaud her.

Bottom line, the girl just wants to play basketball in the Olympics. This is not Jane Fonda encouraging American soldiers to lay down their arms. This girl just wants to be an important part of an international event. At over thirty years of age, this might well be her last chance. Who is anybody to begrudge her? She is playing basketball, not selling American national security secrets. If she wanted to do that, she would first have to get hold of some to sell. She wouldn't need to go to the Olympics to do that. Her time would be better spent at home on the computer, surfing through Craig's List-or E-Bay.

NATO does not have a right to push itself into Russia’s face to begin with, while simultaneously interfering, or trying to, in internal Russian affairs, with George Bush and Dick Cheney consistently acting as the ferocious little lap dog of the Euro elites from Belgium, Germany, and Austria-the true Axis of Evil. Putin and Medvedev both, of course, see their rhetoric for what it is worth. Don’t look now but those two mutts barking like Dobermans look suspiciously like fox terriers on closer inspection.

It could be worse of course. Rumor has it that upon first hearing news of the Russian invasion of Georgia, while attending the Olympic Games in Beijing, Bush initially gave orders for elite crack teams of Rangers, Seals, and Green Berets to pave the way for the liberation of Atlanta.

Strangely, the Olympics seem to have failed in one of its primary missions, that of putting politics aside for a brief time. Becky Hammon is an American, but let us be abundantly clear on this matter. Neither she, nor any American, owes any loyalty whatsoever to NATO, which should go the way of the Dodo bird.

The best place for the heads of NATO might well be the London Zoo, where people can walk by their contained eco-system and watch them strut around and beat their chests while the rest of us throw fruit to them. Maybe if we wait long enough we can watch them vomit and then proceed to lick it back up off the ground.

Since that joyful day is unlikely to come even on some symbolic level in our lifetimes, we can at least applaud Becky Hammon’s determination not to allow their pretentious, bellicose saber rattling to get it the way of her goals. You go, girl.

And, as an extra special treat for all my fellow unabashed sexists-