A month ago we became only the second state to offer civil Unions to gay couples (and the first to do it without the courts telling us to), and now we will soon become the third state to approve state spending on Stem cell research.

Connecticut. why would you want to live anywhere else?

Quote of the Day from Political Wire

"I've never read the Bible cover to cover; maybe I should have."-
- Sen. Rick Santorum (R-PA), quoted in this Sunday's New York Times Magazine, noting that he "is not a reader of scripture" and instead "reads magazines and journals offering commentary on religion." His magazine of choice: First Things.

So instead of actually reading what Jesus said directly from the Bible, he'd rather read right wing Republicans interpretations of what they think he must have meant (hates gays, Loves capital punishment, hates abortion, Loves Bush, Hates feminists, Loves tax cuts for the rich).

I'm starting to Think Santorum ain't quite right in the head.

Bush will veto another stem cell bill.

"I've made it very clear to the Congress that the use of federal money, taxpayers' money, to promote science which destroys life in order to save life -- I'm against that. And therefore if the bill does that, I will veto it,"

So all those leftover enbryos from In Vitro clinics will continue to be thrown in the trash, instead of used to help cure diseases.

The worst part is, Just like in the Schiavo disgrace, I don't think he really cares one way or another. He just does this stuff to satisfy his political base. Otherwise why did he sign a bill in Texas that allows doctors to remove feeding tubes from patients against the families wishes? And why doesn't he speak out against all the "life" thats being destroyed every day in in vitro clinics, and demand they be shut down? Because he doesnt care. Karl Rove shows him a chart of how much position X will improve our poll #'s with evangelicals, and he just rubebr stamps it. Thats my theory anyway.

If I was an evil man, I would wish Parkinsons on his family members. But Fortunatly, I'm not that evil.

First Revenge of the Sith deleted scene leaked on the internet.

This thing will be the death of me.

I'm on level 12.

Bush 'very concerned about cloning'

Yeah right. How else can he declare himself Emperor without his Clone Army?

Hes such a liar.

Star Wars Episode III
Revenge of the Sith



Well I just finally got the last vestiges of my Twi’Lek Jedi costume off from the midnight show (that green makeup gets everywhere!), so I apologize for the tardy review.

I loved it. But then again, I went to the midnight premiere and waited in line for an hour, so I’m not exactly an unbiased source. Of course the reason I went to the midnight premiere, to make fun of the geeks, failed as there weren’t that many dressed up. There was one nerd Darth Vader, and a few nerds dressed as Queen Amidala (either that or Natalie Portman really let herself go), but that was it. Ah well, onto the film. And yes, there are spoilers. How else can I review the movie?

IT was without a doubt the best opening sequence to any Star Wars film. It just grabbed you by your Jedi balls and never let go. The long opening tracking shot was just virtuoso. Put you right in the action, waving in and out of a huge battle, yet giving you a clear frame of reference so you always knew what was going on (something missing from the previous 2 films space battles, which were a confusing jumble). The rest of the opening hour chronicles the end of the war and lays the foundation for the real story. The rise of Bush. Or the Emperor. Whatever you wanna call him. We get some really great action sequences (the film is wall to wall action, a sharp contrast from a lot of the Machiavellian plotting of the first 2), and some secondary villians, but they are just a prelude to the final hour and a half of the film.

At about this midway part of the film, the stupid Jedi’s finally figure out what we knew all along. That Palpatine isn’t some nice benevolent chancellor, but that he is the dark lord of the Sith, and everything that’s happened up til now, the blockade of Naboo, the Separatists, the war, you name it, was all a ruse to give him power and destroy the Jedi’s. But whats ingenious about the film is the way Lucas does it. If you ever wondered how an entire galaxy can let an evil Sith Lord take over as emperor and kill all Jedi’s without stopping it, this is how. Palpatine finesses it in such a way that he really does make it look to some people that the Jedi’s are staging a coup and committing treason. Since the Jedi’s only find out too late the plot, Palpatine makes it look like they are the ones who are making a grab for power by attacking him. He then declares that he will reorganize into a galactic empire to restore the peace. I mean really, when were at war, doesn’t the idea of a Patriot act seem necessary? Why do the Jedi’s hate our Clone Troops so much?

And the way he seduces Anakin is equally subtle. So when he finally does choose the moment to reveal himself as the Sith Lord, Anakins ultimate choice is a sequence that is jarring, and the real kickstart to the rest of the film. From this point on, the movie has a narrative drive that is unrelenting, and you are just taken along for the ride. This is also the movie gets dark. Really dark. Don’t believe me? How about An entire montague of Clone troopers getting their orders and in mid battle, turn and ambush the jedi, murdering them all in cold blood. Or Yoda sifting through the corpses of murdered 6 year olds.

And when we finally get to the big confrontation we are waiting for, even Anakins ultimate fate of how he got into the suit is a violent and disturbing sequence. And Lucas cutting between the birth of the twins and the “birth” of the suited Vader adds a poignancy to the character that was missing from the original films.

Now they still suffer from the same drawbacks as all the other films. The dialogue gets really awful. I felt bad for Natalie Portman for being forced to say some of the things she had to say. As emotional as their last moments together were, it could have been better if it wasn’t filled with such stiff dialogue. Imagine a tearful scene when she sees the man she loves disappearing forever and she says “You’re going down a path that I cannot follow”. Ugh. This is why Empire Strikes back still ranks as the best. Lucas’s skill as a consummate storyteller paired with actual dialogue from Lawrence Kasden that doesn’t sound like a bad Shakespeare play.

One other complaint about the marketing. Suited Vader is in it for a grand total of about 60 seconds, and 2 lines of dialogue, yet hes in every commercial and on every Darth Dew Slurpee cup (collect all four). Don't go in expecting to see Darth Vader running around breathing heavy. It's not there. But the moment when the mask is lowered, and we hear the breathing start for the first time. Good stuff.

So now the films are done. Make way for the live action TV series. Now if you'll excuse me, I have to go on ebay and start bidding on some Burger King lightsaber toys, and apply some clearasill.

nanoo nanoo.

Congressman Robert “Freedom Fries” Ney on March 15, 2003;
With nations such as Iraq and North Korea actively pursuing weapons of mass destruction, we simply cannot afford to sit on the sidelines and do nothing. The world watched on September 11th as 19 terrorists used four American planes to wreak destruction and kill more than three thousand innocent people. All of us should shudder at the thought of how much worse it would be though, if a butcher like Saddam Hussein were to stay in power any longer and develop nuclear weapons. This is a time when the world’s great democracies must stand together as one and say “never again.” We must actively seek peace and security, and not wait and hope that it simply comes to us one day.
No one, especially President Bush, wants to send our troops into harm’s way, but if Saddam refuses to disarm, the potential costs of complacency and inaction are simply too great.

Ney today, in response to the Newsweek article:
Rep. Robert W. Ney (R-Ohio) used even stronger language, saying that Isikoff had "fabricated" the Koran incident and branding Newsweek's behavior "criminal."

I wonder if these people are aware that they are shameless hypocrites with no regard for the truth, or if they are so brainwashed with their right wing Ideology, they actually think they make sense.

Either answer is frightening.

Sicne our country is run by the male radical right wing religous nuts, we get things like the FDA rejecting safe Plan B contraceptive drugs because of objections by evangelical christians paired with the government spending 2 billion dollars on boner pills.

If you want to know what a Democrat would look like with a pair of balls and/or spine, take a look at British Lawmaker George Galloway rip The Republican Senate, and Norm Coleman, Minnesota's shame, in particular, in the Oil for Food hearings.

The big Delay gala thrown to show support for the corrupt majority leader was last night. It was the usual collection of right wing nutcases who spent the whole night doing what Conservatives do best. Blame everyone else for their problems and pretend to be the poor victims. Delay an utterly corrupt degenerate under federal investigation for possible criminal activity? The liberal media's fault.

My favorite part was this:
Celebrity sightings include…Frank Gaffney and James Guckert, heads together in a serious conversation…

Delay is of course one of those super mega Christian conservatives always talking about Jeus this and Jesus that, yet he invites gay prostitutes to his parties.

But then again since the man is the most evil and corrupt politicians in Washington in a generation, I have a feeling he doesn't really often use the WWJD rule.

The Michael Medved smackdown. Its a work of art.

Star Wars Episode III is getting some pretty good reviews. In fact its got a %90 fresh rating from Rottentoamtoes.com.

And this is the blurb from onew of the rare bad reviews:
"I imagine that Revenge of the Sith is very much the film Lucas's fans want to see, but are some of them ready for an anti-Bush diatribe?"

Ummm. Yeah?

Now to decide what to dress up as for the Midnight screening next Wednesday night. I'm thinking either this, or this. Or maybe just this to see how pissed the nerds get.

Since the Nuclear option is coming to a head this week, I found this piece in Salon explaining the in's and outs of whats going on, to be a really handy. Short version: When the Democrats ran the senate they kept all the rules that gave the minority more power in place. Once they took it over, they systematically took them all away.

For instance. It was the custom in the senate that if a single Senator didn't approve of a Judicial nominee from his home state, all they had to do was send a "blue slip" to the Judiciary Committee Chairman and it would then place the nominee on indefinite hold, essentally killing the nomiation right there, before it ever reached the senate. Suffice it to say, Republicans used this tactic to block Clintons nominees left and right. Jesse Helms (R-Racist) made it his personal mission in life to block every single Clinton nominee from his home state for 8 years.

Then something happened. Bush "won" the election. And all of a sudden, Orrin Hatch, the chairman of the Judiciary said that now we need both blue slips from both state Senators to block it. And then, when both Michigan Democratic Senators sent in their blue Slips to block a Bush nominee, he just abandoned the entire Blue Slip practice alltogether.

Or How about recess appointments? When Clinton installed one of his blocked judges with a recess apppointment, Trent Lott (R-Racist), then the majority leader was horrified. He had this to say:
“[A]ny appointment of a Federal judge during a recess should be opposed, regardless of who they are or whether it is Republican or Democrat. I commit myself now to remember that when there is a Republican administration, as well as a Democratic administration.”

Then, When Bush installed racist Charles Pickering through a recess appointment, Trent Lott had this to say in 2004:
"Judge Pickering's record deems this recess appointment fully appropriate."

Are we sensing a pattern here? That is, other than the racism?

Word is Frist doesnt have the votes for the Nuclear option, which will hurt him really bad since he's been banking on it heavily in his public statements. Harry Reid must know this because he called his bluff recently and practically dared him to try it.

Recently on the Alan Colmes Show, token meek FOX liberal Colmes interviewed radical anti-abortion "activist", and by activist I mean the nutcase who posts abortion doctors addresses on the internet, Neal Horsley. It was illuminating.

NH: "Hey, Alan, if you want to accuse me of having sex when I was a fool, I did everything that crossed my mind that looked like I..."
AC: "You had sex with animals?"
NH: "Absolutely. I was a fool. When you grow up on a farm in Georgia, your first girlfriend is a mule."
AC: "I’m not so sure that that is so."
NH: "You didn’t grow up on a farm in Georgia, did you?"
AC: "Are you suggesting that everybody who grows up on a farm in Georgia has a mule as a girlfriend?"
NH: It has historically been the case. You people are so far removed from the reality... Welcome to domestic life on the farm..."

My favorite part, other than the fact that the man readily admits to fucking a mule in the ass, is that when Colmes seems shocked and disgusted by this, Horsley says it just shows how out of touch liberals are.

Pope Benedict bear. Push his belly to hear him speak!


Hitler Youth armband sold separately.

Good news for all of my Vermont readers (Hi Nan!). Now that Jim Jeffords is retiring, Bernie Sanders, the only avowed socialist in Congress, is running for his seat. And he is practically running unopposed, as there is no competition.

While I dont consider myself a socialist (although as a Democrat, I do hate America*), Bernie is right on on all the important issues, and he gives as good as he gets whenver I see him on TV talking Head shows.


*sarcastic font

To the millions out there without adequate healthcare, finally we have a ray of hope.

Ask Dr. Frist.

ABC selling ad time to a hate group, but bans comercials from a Church that talks about tolerance of gays.

Thankfully the ad from the hate group is during SuperNanny, so no one will be watching.