Duck Season

Will spend his wife's own money.

Check out Instapundit and The Counter Revolutionary for stories about how "peaceful" the occupations of Japan, Germany and France really were.

It should also be worth noting that the Iraqi people are aware of how a lot of media are representing the US to the world, and they're mad as all hell.

Check out this fascinating breakdown of Democrat & Republican financial contributions by state, county, or zip code. This country just isn't as divided as we all may have thought.

(Link via Andrew Sullivan.)

Well of course the red states give more money than the blue, the rich are constantly looking for tax write-offs! This doesn't disprove the claim that they're bad people...

Right.

Their Indians weren't as smart as ours:

Ancient Americans were changing corn genes through selective breeding more than 4,000 years ago, according to researchers who say the modifications produced the large cobs and fat kernels that make corn one of humanity's most important foods.

In a study that compared the genes of corn cobs recovered in Mexico and the southwestern United States, researchers found that three key genetic variants were systematically enhanced, probably through selective cultivation, over thousands of years.

****

Scientists now change plants by transferring specific, identified genes from species to species in sophisticated labs. Some advocacy groups have claimed this technique is dangerous. As a result, some European and African countries forbid the import of "GM crops."

But Fedoroff said that, actually, the whole world eats genetically modified foods. She said that over thousands of years, rice in China, wheat in the Middle East and corn in Mexico were all genetically altered through selective cultivation. The effect, she said, was like "a prehistoric Green Revolution."

The same process is under way now, she said, but with modern scientific techniques.

"People are fearful of the food they eat," said Fedoroff, "but civilization has been built on genetically modified plants. We wouldn't have civilization without it."

(Link via Instapundit.)

Not the master of her domain:

I have one song, it's called 'Touch of My Hand,' that's talking about you with yourself, which is a little much. But, it's a reality that we have...Yes, I can relate to that song. And like, we all can, you'd be lying if you said you couldn't, but there is a, I mean, it's not something you openly talk about with a lot of people, it's something sacred; and it's something I wanted to write about, so.

The 2003 Generosity Index is out. As usual, the conservative states dominate the top of the rankings. The 20 most generous states all voted for Bush in the last election, while 5 of the bottom 6 states (including Massachusetts) went for Gore.

For math geeks: the odds that the top 20 states were all Bush states by random chance: 1 in 4,705,860

E.J. Dionne asks, "Is Dean Goldwater?"

This is the key to the Democratic race: Will Democrats decide that this year is about issues and electability, or will they choose instead to build a movement?

***

It is the Goldwater campaign, not George McGovern's 1972 antiwar crusade, that Dean's movement most resembles. Goldwater was not about "new ideas." He was about preaching the full conservative gospel and giving his followers a vehicle through which they could organize and put it into practice. Goldwater had his share of verbal gaffes. His supporters found them endearing. "Moderation in pursuit of justice is no virtue," Goldwater said. You could imagine a Dean supporter saying that.

Goldwater and his legions built a mighty movement that changed the country and affects politics to this day. But in 1964 Goldwater was clobbered by Lyndon B. Johnson in a landslide felt all the way down the ballot.

I guess Dionne must not be a Dean supporter ...

All the debate this week about whether Dean is electable seems unproductive. All the Dean supporters say he is, most of the other liberals say he's not, and nobody ends up agreeing on anything. Not that it's not a legitimate issue, but it seems to only serve as a proxy through which the Dean and anti-Dean factions argue about their candidates without talking about issues.

I wonder whether this will finally convince Nick not to read the Boondocks? (Via Volkapundit)

Aaron McGruder, whose cartoon strip "The Boondocks" is known for its attacks on Republicans, went on the syndicated television show "America's Black Forum" this past week and denounced National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice as a killer.

"I don't like Condoleezza Rice because she's a murderer," Mr. McGruder said, adding, "We can discuss this illegal Iraq war, the slaughtering of innocent people, and because she's one of the big hawks in this administration, I do not even see why this is a point of contention."

Syndicated columnist Armstrong Williams reacted angrily.

"You called the national security adviser a murderer, and I don't think you really meant that," Mr. Williams said. "I think you should be very careful being in the position that you're in making that kind of allegation on a national television show."

Mr. McGruder replied, "I'm not saying she's not doing her job well. I think it's the job of these people to go into Third World countries and kill people in large numbers to put forth whatever the agenda is of the administration." (Emphasis added)

UPDATE: NAACP Chairman Julian Bond agrees with McGruder. Hopefully this will wake some people up to the fact that the NAACp is no longer a civil rights organization. And this Newsmax story goes into more detail than the Washington Times item by including this charming bit from McGruder:

"I don't like her because she's a murderer," the cartoonist announced.

The charged drew immediate condemnation from Armstrong Williams, who complained, "That is totally out of line to say she's a murderer."

Unfazed, McGruder repeated the accusation, stretching out his words, "S-h-e'-s a m-u-r-d-e-r-e-r."

"Let's put aside the fact that she's affiliated with oil companies that murder people in Nigeria," the cartoonist said. "We can discuss just this illegal Iraq war, the slaughtering of innocent people and the fact that she's one of the big hawks of the administration.

20 things that only happen in movies. (Via Marginal Revolution)

Steve Sachs was a little suspicious of reports that the Pentagon was about to revive the draft, so he did a little digging. After a grand total of one phone call, he found out why there was an application out for recruiting people to fill draft boards:

So I checked it out, and called Dan Amon, a public affairs specialist with the Selective Service (703-605-4100). It turns out that the current system of local boards was established in 1979, and many individuals had volunteered for 20-year terms. As a result, the military faced a number of vacancies at the turn of the century, which it's tried in the intervening years to fill. The same thing was reported by the Associated Press, which notes that "hiring replacements has been going on for several years."

Although the Selective Service System wasn't responsible for placing the ad, the site in question (DefendAmerica.mil) contains links to a number of different volunteer opportunities, like the Red Cross and the Coast Guard Auxiliary. Whoever posted the notice undoubtedly wanted to help out by circulating the application to volunteer.

Sachs also has comments on how this inaccurate story spread and why so many people believed in it. Read the next post too.

(Via Oxblog.)

Much better than my entry on math, James Kirchick in the Yale Daily News on 'Campus Truth', Free Speech and H.R. 3077: Campus Left Silences Opposing Views.

Link via that Corner item mentioned below.

Gregg Easterbrook believes that Viking Pundit's Kerry-bashing party train might not be halting all that soon.

Stanley Kurtz links to several intersting articles about a bill in the House of Representatives that will effect the way some university programs are funded:

Opponents of HR 3077 don’t like quoting the actual language of the bill, which does not ban opposition to American foreign policy, but simply calls for the inclusion of many viewpoints. Academics claim to be concerned about academic freedom, but they’ve long since choked off free debate at their own universities. What these professors really want is the freedom to go on suppressing any opposition to their own ideas. HR 3077 doesn’t take away anyone’s right to speak, think, or teach as they see fit. It simply encourages subsidized programs to expose students to many perspectives. If even that is too much to ask, then let area studies get along without special federal subsidies. It’s good enough for philosophy and art history.

While the bill appears to have some intriguing merits, how is mandating educational cirriculum a conservative solution to this problem? What kind of government agency would ensure that class syllabi were fair and balanced?

Derb posted the following math problem in The Corner: "This is one Nellie (5th grade) brought home from school. (Which raises my spirits a bit about the quality of education she is getting.) A, B, and C stand for different digits. Multiply AB by C, the product is BBB; what do A, B, and C stand for? I did it by eye in around 20 sec, then coaxed Nellie through it Socratic-style in 5 minutes or so, and we both felt pleased with ourselves."

I've looked at it for about a minute, and I think I have the solution. Someone please correct me if I'm wrong.

We know that AB x C = BBB

But doesn't AB stand for (A x B)?

So the Problem is A x B x C = B x B x B or ABC = BBB.

If A, B, and C are different digits, doesn't this problem only work if B is Zero? A and C can be whatever number they chose, because when you multiply any number by zero you always get zero.

Someone give me a gold star!

Derb thinks the talk of coincidence is just idiotic.

The Student Senate finally passed a resolution opposing HB 2400. The resolution, because of some weird procedural requirement, must now be sent back to committee. I've attended a few Senate meetings in my time, and if I leave UMass confident of anything, it will be that the Senate parliamentarian is a procedural-nazi.

Money quote:

However, not all agreed with the approach. One person familiar with MassPIRG and the situation stated on the condition of anonymity that the issue "never should've been brought up in the Student Senate."

The person also chastised Representative James Fagan (D-Taunton), the originator of HB 2400, for not knowing that The Mass Media would be affected by the bill. In a recent interview with The Mass Media, Fagan said he did not know that The Mass Media was affected by it, but stated he opposed waivable fees on principle. "I want to make an affirmative choice to spend my own money. I don't need anybody-I'm already married, I don't need anybody else's help in any way," he told The Mass Media.

"How can someone on the Ethics Committee have the balls to go in and say that he's truly trying to do something for students when he doesn't know the parties involved?" said the source, also criticizing HB 2400 as a "state senate push to get rid of MassPIRG," as retaliation for its role in the passing of the Clean Elections law.

This brings up a few contradictory impulses in my mind. I cringed when I read The Mass Media's interview with Rep. James Fagan who responded to a question about student democratic rights' by saying "I assign MassPIRG the same level of credibility that I would give the bacteria that lives in the feces of a rabid dog." Ouch. Way to make it easy to be on your side buddy. Fagan was definitely sloppy with his handling of campus media, and probably should have found out who might be effected by his legislation.

On the other hand, if this is political payback for the Clean Elections law, we have an interesting problem. I support the Clean Elections Law. Yet, if it is true that MassPIRG had a role in passing the Clean Elections law, and this is representative of their legislative work, how can MassPIRG be described as an organization that takes student money to support student causes? (4th paragraph) As much as I support the Clean Elections law, how do we justify MassPIRG using UMass tuition bills as a resource sponge to spend student cash on legislation wholly unrelated to education?

Question for Gin: If MassPIRG has a presence on campus as both a Lobby Group and a Student Club, do they routinely double dip? From having been in the Politics Society one year I know that all clubs get an initial allotment of like $50.00, but are there records available to track down the total amount of money the MassPIRG club has received for its activities from the Student Senate?

I just doesn't seem right that MassPIRG, in any form, should be able to charge a fee on our tuition bill and then get a share of the student activities money.

The Mass Media editorial staff opposes the Partial Birth Abortion ban.

They've got a mole: Some mysterious fellow (Why are they so poorly identified? I thought letter writers had to give their names, majors, and year of graduation?) on campus gets a second pro-Lieberman letter published. It's a zionist conspiracy!!

I've been a fan of Reid Kerr's for a very long time. See why:

(Referring to ESPN's 'Hit Series' Playmakers) The team appears to have been put together from people too nstable to join "The Dirty Dozen." All of the players have serious problems. The star running back smokes crack before games, and steals pain pills from crippled children. The quarterback has knocked up a girl on a dare. One player is struggling to hide his homosexuality, another is dealing with the bad press from a domestic assault. Yet another is a Cubs fan on the brink of suicide. The kicker is secretly stalking Martin Short, and the punter loved "Gigli."

****

Kobe Bryant has announced he'll opt out of his contract with the Lakers next year and become a free agent. You talk about having bad timing. Normally in a contract year, you want to be on ESPN more often than "Celebrity Justice." Kobe still plans to play this season. It's like they say, "You can't stop Kobe, you can only hope he doesn't make bond."

Kobe was in court this week, but didn't speak. I'm still hoping he goes with the "It's okay, I had Subway for lunch" defense.

Now if only I can say the same thing about that other guy with the same surname ...

UPDATE: Does anyone else find it coincidental that Moore was removed from the court by Alabama Attorney General William Pryor on the same day that the Senate is debating the filibuster of the four judicial nominees, one of whom is--yup, William Pryor. It's almost as if they coordinated it or something ...

Isn't he the cutest thing you've ever seen?

Congratulations to Greg of Begging to Differ for his new baby boy, and he might want to take advantage of this White House offer that I saw at the Corner:

A reader e-mails, making the point about the thousands of requests POTUS gets a week: "The White House will send you a hearty congratulations if you send a birth announcement. A nice thing to have for the scrap book, even if my first son did get his from Bill Clinton. At least the next one (due Nov. 24) will get one from W."

Mickey Kaus says the Democrats can beat Bush in 2004 by ... comparing him to Pedro Martinez! Did a good job, but time to go to the bullpen, and all that. Someone from the crowd at the Rock the Vote debate had asked John Kerry about Grady Little's decision to leave Martinez in the seventh game of the ALCS, and Kaus thought Kerry should have taken the opportunity to make the Martinez/Bush comparison:

To most voters, after all (as opposed to most Democratic primary voters), Bush has not on the whole done a terrible job, nor is he a bad man. He responded effectively to 9/11, including using innovative strategies to wage a necessary battle in Afghanistan. He passed two major pieces in his domestic platform (education reform and a big tax cut). He responded to a recession with a lot of stimulus, even if you think the tax cuts were inefficient or inequitable. In short, he pitched well enough in the early innings.

But now, with at least a temporary victory in sight, it's beginning to look in Iraq as if he's getting in a jam. Specifically, we seem to need foreign assistance to finish the job of rebuilding after Saddam, but we can't get it because Bush has alienated our potential allies (in part by waging the war without their approval). And his administration in general is looking a little tired (without Karen Hughes, for example, or much to say on domestic policy apart from jarring Medicare and Social Security changes that are probably either infeasible or unpopular).

You get the idea. In 2004, Bush will want to stay in the game and finish the job. He's Pedro Martinez. The voters have to decide whether to keep him, or thank him for several well-pitched innings and bring in a reliever. They're Grady Little.

Little stuck with Martinez, with the well-known result. Voters, Democrats can say, shouldn't make that mistake.

Kaus works in a Don Zimmer reference as well. And this is what he says on a reader suggestion:

Reader C.K. says the question was a metaphor but Kerry is Pedro Martinez. "The questioner is asking Kerry, in an oblique way, whether he should quit the race and allow the party to consolidate its support around the new front-runner, Howard Dean." ... Hmm. Seems plausible. But Martinez is, you know. good. ...

Wham! Kerry might be done, but that doesn't mean we can't continue making fun of him.

Lastly, Kerry said this about the Marlins' beating the Yankees:

And the reason it's extra special is that's the first legitimate victory out of Florida since 2000.

So does that mean he considers Bush's Florida win legitimate? Or is he just not an English major?

Via Jeff Jarvis, I see that Bill O'Reilly might have to quit his television show in a few years.

Oh, that's because he might run for president.

Straight from a Joe2004 e-mail:

5 Days, 5 Polls: Joe In the Lead in 5 Primary States

Over the last 5 days, polls in 5 primary states have shown Joe Lieberman leading where it counts among voters who will make the difference in 2004.

The election won't be won on the basis of national polls. It will be won state by state, and only Joe Lieberman has the broad national appeal towin in a diverse array of states across the country.

- In the first ever poll in Delaware, which will hold its primary one week after New Hampshire on February 3, Joe leads the field with 19%. (Mason Dixon/WBOC-TV poll)

- In Wisconsin, which holds its primary fourteen days later, Joe leads the field with 16% (Wisconsin NPR / St. Norbert College poll).

- In the critical state of New York, Joe is once again in first place, with 17% (Quinnipiac Poll).

- In the swing state of Ohio -- which like New York holds a Super Tuesday primary -- Joe remains in the lead, with 18 percent. (Ohio Poll)

- Finally, in New Jersey Joe continues to lead the field, in a statistical tie for first place (tied with Dean at 16%). (Quinnipiac Poll)

From the Best of the Web:

"President Bush sketched an expansive vision last night of what he expects to accomplish by a war in Iraq. Instead of focusing on eliminating weapons of mass destruction, or reducing the threat of terror to the United States, Mr. Bush talked about establishing a 'free and peaceful Iraq' that would serve as a 'dramatic and inspiring example' to the entire Arab and Muslim world, provide a stabilizing influence in the Middle East and even help end the Arab-Israeli conflict."--editorial, New York Times, Feb. 27

"The White House recently began shifting its case for the Iraq war from the embarrassing unconventional weapons issue to the lofty vision of creating an exemplary democracy in Iraq."--editorial, New York Times, Nov. 13

2 A.M. Well I was going to go to bed, but Republican Saxby Chambliss just yielded his time to Democrat Zell Miller, and for this kind of thing Miller is a must-watch, so I'll keep going. Let me throw some random thoughts up too:

--The props the Senators use are excellent. Just now Miller had a copy of the Constitution behind him, and he looked through a magnifying glass pretending to look at various parts while saying that he searched the whole document and couldn't find anything justifying what his fellow Democrats are doing. High comedy.

--Dennis Miller was terrible on Monday Night Football, but I'm sure he would have been more entertaining than Barbara Boxer was. Too bad he wasn't serious about running.

--Some Republican (don't remember who) said that it was the first time a president's nominees have not been voted on. That is untrue--it's the first time that nominations have been filibustered. The Republicans need to get their talking points straight.

--If the nominees are so extreme, why can't the Democrats get 2 moderate Republicans to vote against them?

--Some Democrat quoted Republican Bob Smith as proof that even people on the Republicans' side think there has been filibusters on judicial nominees before. Isn't that the same Bob Smith who dropped out of the Republican Party to run for president? Does anyone think there's a good chance that Smith said what he said when he was not a Republican and angry at his former party?

--Zell Miller on the Democrats' message on rejecting Janice Brown: "Conservative African-American women need not apply." Wow.

Miller is done and so am I. Off to bed.

That's the number of people who's going to watch the 30-hour Senate debate and change their mind one way or the other. And yet I can't stop ...

One point I want to make: one of the Democrats' talking points is that 168 nominees got approved, and only 4 didn't, a rate of 98%. As Saxby Chambliss pointed out, 98% isn't good enough in a lot of situations. My point is, if 4 appointments isn't such a big deal, why not just let them get a vote? The answer, of course, is that those 4 nominees are obviously a big deal, which is why the Democrats are so set on blocking the votes. The Democrats so far have spent a lot of time talking about the other issues they could have spent that 30 hours on; if other issues like prescription drugs and the energy bill are more important to Democrats than judicial appointments, then maybe they should just compromise on this issue in exchange for concessions on other issues. All of this is not to say they should just unilaterally disarm and allow the votes without any Republican concessions, only that they are disingenuous when they say that 4 nominees not getting votes is not a big deal.

ALSO: I agree with Randy Barnett's suggestion that the Democrats allow the votes in exchange for the Republicans changing the Senate rules so that future Democratic presidents can also get up-or-down votes for his appointments.

Michele has the links to idiots on Veterans Day.

Armed Liberal finds a gem from a commenter at Roger L. Simon's blog. Click on the first link to learn from commenter "Matt" why Saddam wasn't really that bad, by dictator standards, and all the bad stuff he did are really our fault anyway. Here's some teasers:

As far as Saddam's cruelty goes, it is greatly exaggerated ... no worse than your average dictator ... standard practice for a head of state ... Saddam killed these people in an uprising that was egged on by our own President ... Saddam let them have weapons, Bremer won't. Saddam didn't send soldiers for sweeps through people's houses to see if they had guns ...

Communists lying about history ... that's certainly a surprise ...

TMQ is back, baby!

What you need to know about the Kerry Campaign: He followed Triumph the Insult Comic Dog on the Jay Leno show this evening. Quote Triumph "the poop I left in your dressing room has more heat than John Kerry."

Newsarama posted a 12 page preview from Captain America #21 today. You can check out the story and access the pages here.

My question to the blogosphere concerns page 10 of 12. In the first panel of this page Cap listens to a radio report about an Iranian scholar being fisked away: "--and Hedsyst's clandestine transfer in the dead of night to Guantanamo Bay, where he is expeced to be tried for treason by a secret military tribunal."

In the next panel a person who appears to own the diner that Cap. is sitting is remarks "...what's the country coming to when they revoke your citizenship before you're convicted?" To wit Cap. begins to talk about the internment of the Japanese "Well, they interred the--" before the conversation is interupted.

Let's ignore the shamefull fact that Captain America would never justify something by referencing the Japanese interment, an event contrary to everything Cap holds near and dear. My question: has anyone actually heard of a case where a United States citizen was removed from this Country, taken to Guantanamo, stripped of their citizenship, and put in front of a military tribunal?

If so, could someone please provide a URL documenting such a thing, if available.

If not, can we admit that this is just a bit of untruthful and uneccessary politicizing which, if you read the other 12 pages, doesn't appear to have _anything_ to do with the story?

DAMN YOU MARVEL. Can't you just publish good comics without all this left-wing bullshit propaganda?

It's really easy, and fun, to down talk the anti-war nay sayers. With more than just a bit of vigor I think most of the blogosphere has been boosted by an effort to continuously prove one side or the other of the Operation Iraqi Freedeom conflict argument.

That being said, I can't imagine a better way for those of us who advocated war to better understand our arguments than to reflect upon the final letters sent home by soldiers who have been killed in action. The last letter alone will give my "I told you so" leanings eternal pause out of respect and admiration for a man who never had the chance to hold his newborn son.

War is about so much more than just being right about a principle; that's what I've learnd on this Veterans Day.

Even after tossing in a little bit of left-wing fear ideology, you still have to give Larry his props for this story.

"Women lose rationality when shopping":

German scientists say a woman’s rational thought disappears when she goes shopping.

Researchers at the University of Munster in Germany said female shoppers simply lose the ability to think straight.

They measured the electrical activity in the part of the brain which deals with common sense and rational thought in female shoppers.

They discovered the part of the brain governing the emotions and pleasant feelings was in overdrive, says the Daily Record.

The scientists also found men experience a similar loss of control when offered the chance to buy electrical gadgets, fast cars and computer games.

Captialism: bad for chickens, good for people who eat eggs.

Give them a visa! Proving how American they've become, nine of the illegal immigrants caught working at Wal-Mart are suing the company:

The nine say they were paid lower wages and offered fewer benefit because they are Mexicans, and they accuse Wal-Mart and its cleaning contractors of failing to pay for overtime, withhold taxes or make required workers' compensation contributions.

Their lawsuit, filed Wednesday in Superior Court (search) in Freehold, seeks more than $200,000 in back pay.

Is this a great country or what?

On the one hand, these people did the work and should be paid accordingly, and I really don't have sympathy for a company that hires illegal immigrants. On the other, these people are illegal immigrants. So how about we let them win the lawsuit and then send them on their merry way back to Mexico?

Big headline for this CNN story:

Poll: Majority of voters would not re-elect Bush

...and the lead:

A poll released Saturday finds that more registered voters want to see President Bush voted out than kept in office in the next election, but his job approval rating has remained constant.

In the Newsweek poll, 50 percent of registered voters who were queried said they do not want to see Bush re-elected, while 44 percent said they do.

Once again, we find Bush trailing Mr. Hypothetical Democrat. Mr. Hypothetical has many good qualities. For example, he agrees with most of the voter and poll answerer's positions on the issues. He has both the experience and the expertise a president would need. He is also tall, good looking, and connects well with voters. In fact, there's only one negative for Mr. Hypothetical Democrat--he's not available. Luckily, CNN remembers to tell us in the last paragraph how Bush might do against real Democrats:

Asked about possible matchups between Bush and Clark, Dean, Kerry, Lieberman, and Gephardt, respondents gave Bush a 4 or 5 percent lead in each case.

So Bush is trailing Mr. Hypothetical Democrat by 6 points, but leading real Democrats by 4 or 5 points. Assuming that 6% of respondents answered "don't know" in the candidate matchups (the same percentage as those answering don't know in Bush vs. Mr. Hypothetical Democrat), Bush wins 49-45. What it means is that for each Democratic candidate, one out of ten of those who wants Bush out wouldn't vote for the Democrat either. This doesn't sound like the bad news for Bush that CNN makes it out to be.

Christopher Hitchens on Iraq's last minute peace overture.

Chris Bowers has a long post on a hypothetical gameplan to get Democrats back in power, both in the short and long term. Most of it sounds reasonable, until he gets to his choice of vice-president for Dean: Jessie Jackson Jr. And at least half of the people in the comments liked the idea! Hey, didn't Mickey Kaus say something about a liberal cocoon?

Armed Liberal promises to comment.

Timothy Noah has the dish on the truthfulness of the Reagan mini-series over at Slate.

Partick Belton has the quotes of some Arabs who like Bush's speech--and quotes from the Guardian, MSNBC, the New York Times telling us that "Arabs" didn't (click on the link to see why I used the scare quotes).

Fried chicken is good for you (at least according to KFC--but hey, they're fair and balanced!).

Jessica Simpson wants a new job: "That's so fun, you know? Like, I just think that would be a great first role for me, because it wouldn't be one of those cheesy pop-star roles they normally take. If I'm going to have a movie career, I don't want it to be the little here today, gone tomorrow movie career. I want to be like a Reese Witherspoon, a Meg Ryan or Julia Roberts. I want to make it last"

So what role is she talking about? Surely whatever it is it'll be a challenging as playing a diabetic mom, or perhaps faking an orgasm in a diner?

"I was just like, 'Ohmigosh, that's the one I want to do!' I want to be Barbara Eden (Jeannie from 'I Dream of Jeannie - ed.), I want to do all that stuff,"

Or maybe not.

Here's an interesting tidbit: "There's also a Marvel Comics [character] that I'm kind of signed up for," she said. "I can't really talk about it because it's one of those legal things, but, yeah, I foresee big movies in the future."

Let the speculation begin. I think the obvious guess would be Susan Storm of The Fantastic Four. IIRC Marvel submitted a stockholder report not too long back in which it stated it would have a Fantastic Four movie ready for November '04 release.

The beauty of this casting? Susan Storm is also known as the Invisible Woman, and wouldn't it be great if we could just make Jessica Simpson disappear?

(I think we all saw that coming. ed.)

I just tried to locate this pretty comprehensive Marvel Movie Rumors site I have bookmarked at home to no avail, so aside from stating that Jessica Simpson would be a really hot Ms. Marvel, I can't really speculate what other role she might be signed up for, except to say that I can't imagine she's playing a Bethany Cabe or Pepper Pots to someone's Tony Stark.

In other comic movie news, Halle Berry is talking about Catwoman.

Be sure to check out The Picture of Everything.

Uh, Nick, I saw that episode to which you referred, which is why I said that I was glad they were all in the same party, because if some of them were Democrats and some of them were Republicans, then we would have to vote for one of them for president.

Christopher Hitchens latest piece on Iraq:

The question then, becomes this: Should the date or timing of this unpostponable confrontation have been left to Saddam Hussein to pick? The two chief justifications offered by the Bush administration (which did mention human rights and genocide at its first presentation to the United Nations, an appeal that fell on cold as well as deaf ears) were WMDs and terrorism. Here, it is simply astonishing how many people remain willing to give Saddam Hussein the benefit of the doubt. The late Dr. David Kelley, whose suicide has so embarrassed the Blair government, put it very plainly in an article he wrote just before the war. Seriousness about "inspections" required a regime change in Iraq—no credible inspection could be conducted on any other terms. This point has since been amply vindicated by the Kay inquiry, still in its early stages, which has already unearthed compelling evidence of a complex concealment program, of the designing of missiles well beyond the permitted legal range, of the intimidation of scientists and witnesses, and of the incubation (in some cases hidden in scientists' homes) of deadly biological toxins. Some of the other leads have turned out to be false, or at any rate not proved, and no major stockpiles have yet been found. Nonetheless, the Baathists declared a very impressive stockpile as late as 1999 and never cared to inform the U.N. inspectorate what they had done with it. (If they destroyed it themselves, it deserves to be pointed out, they were in gross and open breach of the relevant resolutions, which anticipated this tactic and specified that all weapons were to be turned over, listed, classified, and only then neutralized in the presence of certified witnesses.)

Go read the whole thing.

In an update to a previous entry, it appears that UNC-Wilmington professor Lisa Pollard is fighting very hard to deny any connections to terrorism, connections she allegedly divulged at a panel discussion according to the head of the UNC-W College Republicans. Her defense has moved past threatening to sue the college newspaper to include the following according to fellow UNC-W professor Mike Adams:

But it gets worse. Another UNC-Wilmington professor (not the author of this editorial) is reporting that Pollard has accused her of organizing a conspiracy to falsely accuse her of claiming to have ties in terrorist networks. In other words, a professor has put the students up to it.

And it gets even worse than that. Several weeks ago, numerous students told me that Pollard had been attacking me in the classroom daily. Among her wild accusations were: that I have started a website devoted to maligning her character, that I have threatened to call the FBI unless Pollard could prove that she is not friends with terrorists, that I don’t have a doctoral degree, and that I don’t have tenure. Of course, none of these claims are true, but I haven’t threatened to sue Pollard.

Hei Lun, let me say that I cherish this very dearly because I hardly ever get to say it but, you are so very wrong! I forgot to mention the other time Kang and Kodos conquered the Earth, by impersonating President Clinton and Bob Dole in the 1996 elections:

Kent: Senator Dole, why should people vote for you instead of President Clinton?
Kang: It makes no difference which one of us you vote for. Either way, your planet is doomed. DOOMED!
Kent: Well, a refreshingly frank response there from senator Bob Dole.

****

Announcer: Ladies and Gentlemen, 73-year-old candidate, Bob Dole.
Kang: Abortions for all.
[crowd boos]
Very well, no abortions for anyone.
[crowd boos]
Hmm... Abortions for some, miniature American flags for others.
[crowd cheers and waves miniature flags]

****

Homer: America, take a good look at your beloved candidates. They're nothing but hideous space reptiles.
[unmasks them]
[audience gasps in terror]
Kodos: It's true, we are aliens. But what are you going to do about it? It's a two-party system; you have to vote for one of us.
[murmurs]
Man1: He's right, this is a two-party system.
Man2: Well, I believe I'll vote for a third-party candidate.
Kang: Go ahead, throw your vote away.
[Kang and Kodos laugh out loud]
[Ross Perot smashes his "Perot 96" hat]

Thankfully, unlike the two aliens, the nine Democrats are all in the same party, so it's not a must that we have to vote for one of them.

Commenting upon Wesley Clark stating that "all Americans - and this is a joke! - all Americans, even if they're from the South and 'stupid,' should be represented" Viking Pudnit notes "It's as if Kang and Kodos have taken over the entire Democratic field."

That's not entirely fair to Kang and Kodos. Eric should have remembered that Kang and Kodos once conquered an unarmed Earth with just a club and slingshot. I can't believe Wesley Clark would condone such a realist foreign policy.

Though, in fairness to Eric's argument, Kang and Kodos did cap their complete and immediate withdrawal from the Earth (thanks to Moe, who had a board with a nail in it) with this Katrina vanden Heuvel moment:

Alien 1: It seems the earthlings won.
Alien 2: Did they? That board with a nail in it may have defeated us. But the humans won't stop there. They'll make bigger boards and bigger nails, and soon, they will make a board with a nail so big, it will destroy them all!

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