United 93

As the name suggests, this movie is about a telling of events of United Airlines Flight 93 that crashed in Pennsylvania during the horrible events of September 11, 2001. The movie begins with the people boarding the flight and ends...well the only way such a story can end.

This was a hard movie to get through. Its actually painful to watch. You know what going to happen, and so you wait for each hammer to fall with increasing tension and dread. This does not mean the movie is bad. It just means the story is told that well that even though you know whats coming, you watch anyway. You watch this horror unfold almost all over again and it hurts.

The agenda of this movie can be the agenda you choose to see and insert into it. Really though. the only agenda this movie has is to tell a story of events on United 93 with the other events of 9/11 playing into it since they are directily tied together. The director and writer, Paul Greengrass weaves this story together very well with events on the ground with events in the air.

When this movie ended, literally more then half the audience was crying and the other half was on the verge. This movies hurts to watch, but it is worth seeing.

Tony Snow new White House Press Secretary

The White House announced today that Tony Snow will be the new press secretary, replacing Scott McClellan. Give him credit but Snow is sacrifing his radio talk show and his Fox News TV show to take the job. It does provide excellent training ground in doing the professional spin that the job requires. Sadly though this is just another case of Bush trading yes-men. To be fair, being WH spokesman, yes-man is job requirement.

A Little Political Humor

Just a touch of humor to bring a smile (or frown) to your face.

Air Force One Graffiti - A video of Air Force One being tagged with statement "Still Free". Article about it here.

Pizza Palace - A look at the ordering pizza in the year 2010.

McClellan retires, Bush at 33% approval

Despite a so-so successful visit from China prime minister, Bush just can't seem to catch a break. Scott McClellan, dissembler in chief, has decided to call it quits as Press Secretary. Its so bad even FoxNews.com of all places is reporting on the new low in approval rating for Bush. He now sits at 33%. Finally people are waking up to the consistent failure that is Bush. Took em long enough.

Gas $75 a barrel, $3 at the pump, but some good news

Oil hits a record high with $75 barrel for no other reason then because the oil cartels wish it so. Currently gas is $3 a gallon and will probably soon rise to about $3.20, all before the usual summer vacation markup! I am sure Bush and Cheney are quite happy right now as their stock dividends etc will be quite nice.

In the good news, if you love the iPod, like me, and use iTunes to buy music, Steve Jobs managed to hold the line and keep prices at $.99 a song. The RIAA, of course, was doing their best to raise the price to maximize profits while complaining how broke they are.

Also, JJ Abrams has apparently been tapped to direct the next Star Trek movie. Hopefully it true and not just a rumor that has spread all over the place. If don't know who he is, he is the creator of Felicity, Lost, Alias, and directed Mission Impossible III. Hopefully, this will mean the next movie will get a decent budget as probably one of the biggest obstacles has been the penny pinching. Epic space battles don't come cheap and anyone worth their salt knows that a Star Trek movie needs at least one.

Michelle Malkin crosses the line #123543

Michelle Malkin is a known media darling for the Republican party. To her, "any means necessary" is the phrase to employ when defending her Republican heroes against their critics. She worships at the alter of Bush so you can imagine her reaction to anything that is against his precious holy war in Iraq. This week in a blog posting called "SEDITIOUS SANTA CRUZ VS. AMERICA", in response to a group called Students Against War (SAW) on the Santa Cruz Campus, she decided to post the personal phone numbers of the leaders of the campus group. Of course the expected death threats followed, which is always going to occur on any decisive issue.

Even more amazing then the gall for this women to give out personal information on students is that she has the nerve to say "As for SAW, my message is this: You are responsible for your individual actions. Other individuals are responsible for theirs. Grow up and take responsibility."

This from a person that does everything to dodge responsibility for anything she has said or done, whose career is about making excuses for others not living up to their responsibilities. Even more hypocritical, you can't exactly give Michelle a call when you disagree with her statements. You think Michelle would have the balls to back up her own words with action. She takes them to task for their views and wants people to call those students, you would think she would offer up her home phone number so those of us that don't agree with her can give her our opinions.

However, we are talking about a mouthpiece of the republican parties so hypocrasy is a given.

TV network vs FCC

Finally, after be kicked around over and over and over again, the TV network have finally decided they have had enough of the high handedness of the FCC. ABC, NBC, CBS, Fox and affilates have filed notices of appeal in federal courts against the various high fines the FCC has been handing down such as $3.6 million for an episode of "Without a Trace."

The networks and affiliate groups, representing more than 800 individual stations, issued a rare joint statement Friday calling the FCC ruling "unconstitutional and inconsistent with two decades of previous FCC decisions.

"In filing these court appeals we are seeking to overturn the FCC decisions that the broadcast of fleeting, isolated — and in some cases unintentional — words rendered these programs indecent."

The networks and stations said the FCC "overstepped its authority" and acted arbitrarily in not giving the networks a clear standard for what content is objectionable.

- source: news.yahoo.com

The rules have constantly been changing, or inconsistant, and basically give the FCC the ability to voilate the 1st admendment whenever they see fit. When they see fit seems to most often occur after the Family Television Council or whatever they are called, gets started on one of their campaigns. The end result is a few people get to alter the viewing habits of the majority without anyone's say or permission.

So bravo to the networks and finally growing a pair. Tell the FCC and FTC they can shove their wanton violations of the first admendment where the sun don't shine.

South Park Censored

Wednesday, South Park aired part II of its episode codemning Family Guy, censorship and the nonsense over the images of Muhammad. I know, that not PC, but then I am not Muslim. I don't expect them to follow every tenet of, say Christianity (nor would they), I don't see why we have to follow theirs.

Anycase, the powers that be at South Park decided that it was too risky to air an image of Muhammead handing a football thing to the Peter character, since it might anger some. Never mind that the image already aired a couple of years ago for the episode "Super Best Friends" and not a peep was heard. It a pretty solid example of how people can only become offended when someone tells them they should be. Otherwise most are oblivious.

Thanks to wikipedia for the pics.

Intel Mac Benchmark Smorgabord

Macologist.com did some massive benchmarking for all the intel Macs on the market. It contains more graphs and info then probably want to know. The one thing it lacks is a comprehensive versus section for comparing a Mac to its PC counterpart. Either way might be useful info for those thinking of making the jump.

War on Easter?

Apparently there is a war going on. A war that noone knows is going on. That is hidden from view. A secret war. A war..against EASTER!?!?!?!?!?! Be afraid, be very afraid. The war could come to you!

Sounds a bit paranoid and dramatic but thank god we have Bill O'Reilly and his crazy friends to protect us. Either that or he has a new book to promote and nothing like making us problems to sell stuff. Heh the cover of his book is hilarious.

Universal Healthcare in Massachusetts

Today, Governor Mitt Romney signed into law a bill that basically provides universal healthcare to residents of Massachusetts. The theory is that it will cost about a billion a year to provide the coverage to citizens. The cost would be re-couped from the federal government and existing state spending (since have to pay for care of the poor anyway, etc.). This should be interesting to see what occurs and could prove to be the testing ground for nationwide healthcare.

However, as is often the case, I don't think many have considered unintended side effects. The first will be flight into Mass. Many people, especially the poor and the ill, will probably try to move into Mass. to get the coverage to pay for needed medicines. I am not sure what the restrictions are on residency but it will quickly become a vital piece of information to have. Another aspect is the cost. I think one billion is too low a number. Healthcare costs are growing quickly ever year and I don't think the budgets are allowing for that. Finally, the beaurcracy that will form around this will probably quickly become huge, expensive, and incredibily ineffecient, which is what happens when the powers that be put paper pushers and shreadsheet lovers in charge. When you live by numbers and die by numbers, crap is usually the result. At the end of the day, however, I hope this plan succeeds and from it comes an effective, efficient plan for nationwide coverage.

Rubber Stamp Congress video

CrooksandLiars.com has posted a hilarious video from Matt Stoller delivering a thousand plus rubber stamps to Senator Specter's office. In it he talks about what a "time-saver" it would be for the republicans to have the stamps so that Bush can protect us even more.

Video is here.

Online Free TV from ABC

ABC has announced that it is going to offer streams of its television shows including "Desperate Housewives" and "Lost" the day after they broadcast for free. Interesting twist on things since ABC was one of the first to offer its shows on iTunes for $1.99 a pop.

The catch in this case is you don't own the download (even though I am sure the tech savvy can remedy that) and you are going to be forced to watch those commercials as don't have the option to skip em. Small price to pay to have TV on demand or not having to stress missing your favorite show.

As far as how wide this will spread, that to me is debateable. The idea is sound. The business model actually exists (required to watch commercials) but will it spread. I guess it all depends on cost. The file size to serve up an hour long show is not small, nor is the storage, the servers, the bandwidth, etc (as youtube.com is discovering). Its easy to say will provide it, but a different animal to actually do it consistenly and with growing volume. I think in the short term, the networks will join the bandwagon but only in small carefully controlled doses.

As an aside, maybe the networks should consider joining together to offer their goods on youtube.com. The intrastructure and method of delivery already exists, they are thirsty for a business model, and they have a HUGE built-in audience. They could not only use the site to promote the show, but use it to create home grown homages (ie promotions) for those series in contests and the like. The best part though is no re-inventing the wheel and its probably possible to buy it outright.

Immigration protests

Apparently in mulitple locations in the US, organized protests where carried out. In Lexington, Kentucky, they waved signs that read: "We were all immigrants once," and "We are not terrorists," The Associated Press reported. Many carried Mexican flags. Basically they want the chance at a better life.

Let us dissect some of these statements which truly summarize the thing. "We were all immigrants once." This is true, but most of those immigrants became citizens through legal means. They earned it. They followed the law. Are any of them terrorists? Not likely. I also find it telling many carry the Mexican flag. This seems to confuse the issue of loyalty. The claim they want to opportunites of the US but seem to also have divided loyalties. Also, they claim this issue is for all immigrants regardless of nationality, but clearly the flags prove its really only a Mexican issue. Considering that 70% of the illegals are probably from Mexico then its no surprise.

Key thing about this whole argument though...they want this chance without having to earn through legal means. They basically are arguing that since they have broken the law for so long lets just make it legal and be done with it. There are already means in place to earn citizenship, earn the right to live and work here. The key word is earn. Actually learning English being step 1 rather then living a lifetime here unable to communicate with 90% of the countries population many claim they are loyal (while waving the Mexican flag). The millions of people ignoring it shouldn't just get carte blanche because they have gotten away with it for so long.

You want the rights and freedoms that citizenship brings. Earn it. Become a citizen. End the divided loyalies.

Bush Authorized Plame leak?

In a story spreading like wildfire on the net but mostly ignored on the television, court papers have ex-chief of staff for Chenay claim that the President himself authorized the leak on Plame. The implications of such an act would normally be devestating but since the republicans have made a science of flaunting the law, I see little happening here.

The interesting aspect of the story is that the White House is neither confirming or denying the story. One thing is telling though is that Scott McClellen did feel a need to argue that Bush can de-classify information if he wants to. McClellan said, "Because of the public debate that was going on and some of the wild accusations that were flying around at the time, we felt it was very much in the public interest that what information could be declassified be declassified, and that's exactly what we did."

Of course this doesn't answer the question of why the White House wasn't up front about that in 2003. Why allow a two year plus investigation, costing who knows how much money continue if they believes the President can do what he wants? To me the whole thing stinks to high hell. If true, the story confirms my theory that the leak had to come from the top.

McKinney Apologies`

Congresswomen McKinney was finally forced to see the light and apologize for her horrible behavior in striking an officer. She even did it on the House floor. "There should not have been any physical contact in this incident," McKinney said. "I am sorry that this misunderstanding happened at all, and I regret its escalation and I apologize." It may be too little to late as the charges are already before a grand jury. I don't think she deserves jail time but frankly she should get the same treatment any average citizen would get for doing the same thing be it a fine or jail time. Not sure what normally happens in DC on cases such as that.

XP Gaming on a Mac works

Some people have dared to experiment and have discovered that PC games work just fine on a Intel Mac. It should but since this is all new, it never hurts to be sure. What I am interested in though is performance comparisons. Hopefully soon someone will post some benchmark tests of XP systems versus various Mac systems to see who is king.

Apple official allows boot to XP

Today Apple released a beta version of "Boot Camp" that allows Microsoft XP to be installed on Apple intel based computers. The program also comes with the needed drivers for most of Apple's hardware and monitors. About the only thing not support is the remote and iSight camera. Hopefully this will be corrected with the final version of Boot Camp is released with "Leopard", the OS X upgrade.

With this development, once OS X 10.5 comes out, there is no reason to not try out the new suite of Apple products coming in the pipeline. I plan on trying out the Mac Mini.

Download the software here.

McKinney Needs Some Jail Time

It appears that the capitol police are going ahead with assault charges against US Representative McKinney. While elsewhere she would have already been tossed in jail and released on bail by now, the "stature" of the person combined with the way Washington DC justice system functions, means this case has to go before a grand jury. This is actually a colossal waste of money for a little thing, but sadly, its become necessary due to how horribly McKinney handled this whole situation.

If she had simply made a apology/non-apology that politicians are famous for, this might have gone away. Instead she immediately went for the race card. Something she has historically done, but usually with at least a little hesitation. Even when running against a black Democrat candidate, she used race to help her get votes. Habits die hard I guess.

As a result of her own behavior, she painted the police in a corner. Do nothing, they look weak, ineffective and easily pushed over. Also, McKinney probably would have forced them to fire the officer which would have severely impacted the ability for them to do their jobs as they would always wonder if the next person they stopped could cost them their job.

Finally there is a hypocrisy of the whole thing. She is a lawmaker who has made it very clear she thinks she is above the law. A security officer stopped her because he didn't recognize her. Her response is to hit him. In what world is that an appropriate response? If it had occurred to anyone else, anywhere else, we would have called them a damn fool. In McKinney's world though its the officer's fault for not memorizing her face. Why he should have to do that is beyond me. If she behaved like the adult she claims to be, the situation would have resolved itself in minutes instead of becoming this pathetic farce.

The worst part? She pretty much guaranteed herself re-election. Sadly her constituents are not the best and the brightest. They prefer flash over substance, loud over results. I say this as a former resident and result of her district. A district whose conditions and education level is abysmal and I hear little of McKinney's part in improving things.

Katie Couric moves to CBS

Katie Couric made it official that she is moving to CBS to anchor The CBS Evening News and appear on 60 Minutes beginning in September. The vocalized reason is the opportunity, history, yada-yada. The real reason is moolah with a rumored pay day of around $50 million for 5 years. Her replacement on Today? Meredith Vieira from The View.

The real question though is why should the viewing audience care? The answer of course is we shouldn't. When was the last time Couric even showed journalistic ability? When she interviewed the celeb du jour with the usual litany of softball questions? That represents 20 years of experience? The reality is a news anchor today is much different from yesteryears. Today they are simply talking heads reading from a script providing by writers and producers. It doesn't take any special skill to read a script. And don't point at 60 minutes. Those are also canned. The producers are one that does the research, interviews the people, edits the story, everything. The only thing the on air talent does is show up to film a few scenes from a script. Again, zero display of journalism.

From a business move, this might be genius but I think CBS is in for a rude awakening. The audience at the crack of dawn is much different from an audience during a setting sun.