Ooh, before I go... here's Eric Alterman's Nation column, on the punditocracy's ever-so-typical reaction to Al Gore's speech the other week in SF.

I will be in San Luis Obispo most likely until sunday afternoon, so it is doubtful that I will post again between now and then. But who knows? I'm playing in a concert/party saturday night at 1152 Murray St, rockin everybody's socks off, and wishing Laurie's socks were there.

later!

OBSERVATION FROM 'Y TU MAMA TAMBIEN'

I saw it on campus wednesday night, in a theater with 800 college students, and among the many memorable points in the movie, the line I'll carry with me for a long time is:

"Dude, left-wing chicks are really fucking hot!"

Good point! Mine sure is!

SMHS SATAN UPDATE
(blog entry excuse edition)

My favorite parts of the 2nd article (the one about the protest that wasnt) are Cachay's intent to move her daughter to another school because of one lunchtime club, a club she isn't even part of . . . and last but not least, Cachay's hilariously ominous quote:

"They (club members) say they're not practicing rituals. Not yet," Cachay said. "When you start choosing to worship darkness, there's something wrong there."

And besides, ma'am, I thought Christianity was supposed to be about making choices, choosing "good" over "evil". How do you grow personal character in your religion without having both options available?

The Bush Administration finally makes a clear case for war in Iraq.

Reviews of the new albums by Beck, Pearl Jam and Coldplay are posted on my personal website, naturally in the "Reviews" section.

FALWELL CALLS MOHAMMED 'A TERRORIST'

From Matt Drudge... true to Drudge's character, he's instead fronting the pending release of compulsive liar Bill Sammon's book that masturbates to Dubya's supposed "leadership". That book is being published by Regenry (essentially 'Scaife Publishing'), so there's no need to take it seriously.

Nevertheless, I have serious questions for Mr. Falwell. Namely, I thought America's experience with Arab terrorism was the fault of feminists, gays, pagans, abortionists, the ACLU, and People for the American Way! Which is it, Jerry!?!? Make up your mind!

BEARCATS... FROM HELL!!!
My high school's Satanism Club

San Mateo High School, at which I was a proud member of the class of 1999 (voted best musical talent, hehe), has made national news again. No, not for our prolific canned food drive, but for something even better! A couple of students have started a club entitled "The Satanic Thought Society", and according to an article in tuesday's San Mateo County Times, the mere existence of such a club has sparked outrage among a number of parents, including one Pam Cachay, who had this to say of the club:

"It's just a negative that doesn't belong in the school,"

Cachay's 15-year-old daughter, Larena Whattam also chimed in, saying:

"I was completely appalled. I'm a Christian and I love God,"

I'll address the mother first: A Satanism club doesn't belong in a public high school, huh? However, I'm sure you'd agree with me that civics and history DO belong in public school. Especially education about a certain 10-part document from 211 years ago, particularly the first of those ten parts. If Pam wants the Satanic Thought Society out of SMHS, then I can call for the banning of Christians With a Vision (C-WAV) from the school as well. To each his/her own, ma'am, you are not dealing with a Christian school. Repeat after me, ma'am: Congress shall make no law...

And to the daughter: You love god! Good point! Did it ever occur to you that not everyone is you? Or furthermore, that not every organization on Earth was meant to please you? Larena, I'll bet you have no interest in revved-up sportscars. You probably want a Jetta when you get your license. So by that logic, would you also want to get rid of sportscar appreciation club or something? If you don't like Satanic thought, don't join the club. It's that easy!

Oh! And just so there isn't any confusion about if this is a Marilyn Manson club or something, members of the club, including founder James Doolittle, have made it quite clear that Satanism isn't about worshipping a horned beast from Hell, or being violent and hateful (cough cough that's god's job cough cough). The club will apparently be focusing on the teachings of Anton LaVey, who started the Church of Satan in 1966.

UPDATE!!!
Number of students who attended last week's Satanic Thought Society meeting: 35
Number of parents who joined Pam Cachay in her Anti-STS protest at the school: 0

Yes, Pam's planned protest didn't exactly go as planned, according to the San Mateo County Times.

Score it:
First Amendment 1,
Narrow-minded Christians 0.

JERSEY GOP HYPOCRISY UPDATE!

Joe Conason with a neat little recent history lesson for New Jersey Republicans. (as well as some good advice for Torch)

QUITE A HALF-LIFE THERE!

First it was kilograms of uranium reported seized in southern Turkey, not far from Iraq. Then it was mere grams of uranium. What did we find out today? It wasn't even uranium at all.

DO AS I SAY, NOT AS I DO! (BULLET-IN-HEAD EDITION)

A Jefferson County man trying to teach his son about gun safety accidentally shot himself in the head Sunday, police said.

Randal Lewis, 40, of Imperial died Sunday evening at St. Anthony's Medical Center in south St. Louis County. The shooting occurred about 4:30 p.m.

Police said Lewis, of the 3900 block of Oak Valley Drive, near High Ridge, was talking to his 12-year-old son about the safe handling of guns and knives when the accident happened.

Full story

Anyone reach Bob Barr for comment?

One of my housemates pointed me to this Washington Post piece from mid September.

HHS SEEKS SCIENCE ADVICE TO MATCH BUSH VIEWS

The Bush administration has begun a broad restructuring of the scientific advisory committees that guide federal policy in areas such as patients' rights and public health, eliminating some committees that were coming to conclusions at odds with the president's views and in other cases replacing members with handpicked choices.

Full Story

And Dubya talks about bipartisanship. Understanding all viewpoints of a situation. Sigh. And did anyone hear the supposed "liberal media" say a damn thing about this?

Solid piece from Tom Friedman today. While I'm not sure that Rummy's press conference nationalism "resonated" with me, Friedman is right on the mark about the attitudes of our current administrations foreign policy, especially in comparing our "defense policy" to our other international policies, including Kyoto:

We will never be taken seriously by the world if we go on telling others that they are either with us or against us in the war on terrorism — but that in the war for a greener planet, in the war against global warming, sorry, we're not with you, we're taking a powder, because we don't want to give up our energy gluttony. President Bush promised that he would offer a credible alternative to the Kyoto treaty. Where is it?

And besides, the fact is, New Jersey has consistenly voted for Democratic senators for a couple decades straight now. It's Republicans vs. Democracy, again!

GOP HYPOCRISY? I'M SHOCKED, SHOCKED!

I find it just the slightest bit odd that the Republicans are challenging the NJ Democrats on the candidate replacement deadline there. If the Republicans are really serious about congressional campaign deadlines, shouldn't they be telling Kathrerine Harris to drop out in Florida?

I love The Onion.

Bush Seeks U.N. Support for 'U.S. Does Whatever It Wants" Plan

WAS JEB BUSH FED QUESTIONS IN LAST WEEK'S DEBATE???

Atrios gets the scoop on this one

O'Brien is opening a lead over Mitt "olympics" Romney in Massachusetts. Between that and the statistical dead heat between Jeb and McBride in Florida, it could be a good November for Dem's in America's statehouses.

Anyone else find it amusing that the more the official amount of uranium caught on the Turkey-Syria border decreases, the more the official amount of chemicals and germs the Reagan/Bush1 administrations sent to Baghdad for their use goes up?

Now that it looks like Torricelli is quitting his reelection campaign for the senate, speculation about a replacement Democratic candidate is flying around. My only question: Bruce Springsteen, or Tony Soprano??

But seriously, folks, they are talking about Bill Bradley as a replacement. TFM has no problem with this, he's proven himself as an effective member of congress before.

Has the American public been "misunderestimated" by the Bushies with the attempt to shift the entire nation's focus to Iraq (for some TBA reason)? Karl might want to take a look at the most recent generic congressional polls...

"The economy's coming back . . . raw materials are up this month" - a local rag's managing editor, May 2001.
"The surplus will stand" - same person, same time.

From the NY Daily News - The quote of the year, from a Bush political adviser with a heavy interest in the stock market and economy:

"I wish Bill Clinton was still president"

Go get 'em Frank!

MWO did print a partial transcript of the most recent Ari Fleischer disinformation briefing, referring to the valiant efforts of an AP reporter named Ron Fournier to nail Ari on Bush's "Democrats not interested in national security" comment. But Mark Halperin's piece in Monday's NYT really illustrates how remarkable an occurrence this was.