Send me good-luck moving vibes.

Is that weird?

Now that the ostensibly "planted" story exists in the foreign press, look for it to be picked up by influential right-wing war supporters in the US media.

Perhaps one with a history of fabrications -- on this very subject.

Still waiting on Josh's big scoop.

Do you want to follow the genesis of another administration scandal?

There's something going on with the "Iraq's buying uranium from Nigeria" story beyond the whole Joseph Wilson/Plame affair that had Bush being interrogated in his own office for more than hour last week.

We're at an early stage, apparently. But the word has gotten out that more is coming down the pike on the origin of those fake-ass Nigeria documents -- and Josh Marshall implies that a planted counterstory emerged today in the Financial Times.

I've seen Marshall write stuff like this before. He's not to be taken lightly.

I would bet that the CIA (and disgruntled ex-CIA, maybe) has something to do with all of this. That's my impression from reading Josh and Seymour Hersh regularly. But we're at a critical phase right now.

Watch carefully.

I saw it last night at 1000 Van Ness. Sunday night, 9:45pm: full house. Raucous crowd jeering at the endless dumb commercials before the movie.

It's an unfocused and crude movie. Moore has too many targets and comes off, at times, as a bit of a loon. The stuff in the second half is a lot better; Moore lets a Michigan woman who has lost a son in the war pretty much take over. There's an authenticity to her grief that is undeniably powerful.

I was watching some jackasses on the PBS show "Inside Washington" concur, unhesitatingly and without argument, that this movie will have no effect on the election. They're wrong. It'll solidify the base, jack fundraising, and change the minds of swing voters in a poll-noticeable way.

Go!

...also, what Billmon says.

Amazing photo.



Click the pic for the story.

Awesome. Total Ferris moment.

"It lets you control your environment," said Harry Kargman, chief executive of Kargo, a New York company that plans to begin selling in July a variety of cellphone sounds for $2.99, including the rasp of a hacking cough to simulate lung infection. "It's not necessarily malicious or nefarious," Mr. Kargman said.

Someone give Joe Biden some goddamned props.

I missed my chance to go see it tonight with Mara in Davis. Traffic sucks.

I happened to watch the ABC Evening News tonight and was flabbergasted at the uniformly negative "debunking" piece that aired on the movie. This is the liberal media? Cocksuckers.

Go see it and take yer mom.

Read the whole thing.

Remarks by the Vice President at a Rally for Bush-Cheney '04
Springfield Expo Center
Springfield, Missouri
June 21, 2004

5:59 P.M. CDT

THE VICE PRESIDENT: Thank you. (Applause.)

AUDIENCE: Four more years! Four more years! Four more years! Four more years! Four more years! Four more years!

THE VICE PRESIDENT: You fucking got that right. (Laughter. Applause.)

I don't think I've enjoyed anything, in a long time, as much as I've enjoyed listening to the five Harry Potter audiobooks over the last month or so.

I'm an old D&D dork at heart and Rowling's stuff, read by this genius actor named Jim Dale, just blew me away. Having read tons of that shit over the years (Eddings, Jordan, Weis/Hickman, etc., etc., etc.), I was skeptical that Rowling was any good. I'm a total convert.

Highly, highly recommended.

(I got them all using Bittorrent.)

...weird cultural synchronicity alert:

Neely explained the genesis of this fractured yet oddly literary retelling of "Sorcerer's Stone."

"I was out at a bar with some friends," he recalled. "There was this guy playing pool all by himself with headphones and sunglasses on, and we were just having a really fun time postulating, What could he possibly be listening to? And just out of the blue, I started doing that voice talking like he was listening to a book on tape of 'Harry Potter,' and ad-libbing 'Harry Potter' scenes from what I remembered of the movie."

Wasn't me, I'm afraid. Kinda wish it were.

Here.

An exerpt:

Why can’t you be more like me? I’m perfect in every way and you aren’t. To say that you aren’t perfect is probably the biggest understatement in the history of human communication. So what is your problem? Maybe you don’t have enough iron in your diet? Try drinking more water. Sleep less. Study harder. Get your act together. Did you know that there is a surgical treatment for that? Have you considered a transplant? Braces? Implants? Reduction? A wig? How about a comb-over? I’m glad I’m not you, that’s all I have to say. Nope, I wouldn’t want to be in your shoes. Speaking of shoes, what exactly are those things on your feet? Are they corrective?

(via die puny humans)

Here.

Hammermaster?

I'm so far ahead of the curve on this one, it's laughable. LAUGHABLE.

Let me walk you though it.

[links to be added]

EXHIBIT ONE: CHALABI FUNDS CUT OFF, HQ RAIDED

EXHIBIT TWO: CHALABI HATES THE CIA; THINKS CIA BEHIND ANTI-CHALABI ACTIVITY

EXHIBIT THREE: CHALABI REPORTEDLY HAS THE DIRT ON PROMINENT AMERICAN OFFICIALS

Presumption: This is true.

Corollary: Chalabi is more likely to gather incriminating dirt on those he perceives to be his enemies (CIA, State) than others.

EXHIBIT FOUR: TENET, HEAD OF CIA, SUDDENLY AND DRAMATICALLY RESIGNS, MERE WEEKS AFTER BUSH EXPRESSES SUPPORT FOR HIM

CONCLUSION: CHALABI'S DIRT CAUSED TENET TO RESIGN.

Discuss.

I've actually been downloading episodes of this:

OTTAWA — Veterans of the '80s cult classic TV show You Can't Do That On Television filed a $1 billion class-action lawsuit against Nickelodeon Monday, alleging that the network exposed them to a bevy of toxins which led to a chronic affliction called Green Slime Syndrome.

"The producers assured us the slime was safe, and that getting drenched with it for five or more takes wouldn't cause any lasting damage," cast member Alasdair Gillis said. "I was only 12. I didn't ask questions; I just did what the director said. Now I live with constant pain."

Gillis then pulled up his sleeves to reveal the suppurating pustules that cover his forearms and wrists.

Right after the press reports that Nixon was too plastered to talk to whoever on the phone that night, there's this:

According to American officials, the Iranian official in Baghdad, possibly not believing Mr. Chalabi's account, sent a cable to Tehran detailing his conversation with Mr. Chalabi, using the broken code. That encrypted cable, intercepted and read by the United States, tipped off American officials to the fact that Mr. Chalabi had betrayed the code-breaking operation, the American officials said.

American officials reported that in the cable to Tehran, the Iranian official recounted how Mr. Chalabi had said that one of "them" — a reference to an American — had revealed the code-breaking operation, the officials said. The Iranian reported that Mr. Chalabi said the American was drunk.

WTF?

This is too f'ed-up to be real.

...then go read Josh Marshall on this.

...and Kevin Drum reporting on a Michael Ledeen article from the National Review.

[NB: More non-political stuff on its way!]