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November 29, 2005
More, Scarier News on Bush War Planning
Sy Hersch's piece in the New Yorker is frightening and credible. The key to the US drawdown isn't just retreat of US troops, but replacement of that manpower with US airpower to support Iraqi troops. What that means in practice is few US casualties, but much more use of bombs to target insurgents. That, in turn, will mean many more Iraqui civilian deaths from collateral damage and mistaken targeting. Which is both abhorrent and unstrategic - it certainly doesn't sound like a great recipe for winning hearts and minds in Iraq (although, sadly it just could work to win voters in the US).
Posted by tedf at 08:17 PM | Comments (0)
November 27, 2005
Josh Marshall on the Emerging Bush Plan to Withdraw from Iraq
Josh Marshall has convinced me that all the Murtha-bashing of the last two weeks has been about laying down cover to prepare for Bush's plan to declare victory and retreat:
". . . there is no debate about withdrawing American troops from Iraq. That's over. What we have is posturing and positioning over the political consequences of withdrawal. The White House and the president's partisans will lay down a wall of covering fire, calling anybody who considers withdrawal an appeaser, to allow the president to go about the business of drawing down the American presence in Iraq in time to game the 2006 elections."
Talking Points Memo: by Joshua Micah Marshall November 26, 2005 12:14 AM
Posted by tedf at 02:59 PM | Comments (0)
November 25, 2005
Very Smart Analysis from Scott Rosenberg on Google's New Service
"Google Base" appears to be Google's competitor to Craigslist, but it could be a whole lot more. Salon's Scott Rosenberg addresses why that could be a problem . . .
Scott Rosenberg's Links & Comment
Posted by tedf at 12:05 PM | Comments (0)
November 23, 2005
Dvorak on Gamers as the Real PC Visionaries
Here's a great column by computer industry pundit John Dvorak on the XBox 360. He concludes that it's the best computer product he's seen in a decade (a stealth Media PC), and that the reason why is because it was designed by gamers, not the business-software developers who have dominated product development over the last deade.
Opinions from PC Magazine: Xbox 360 to the Rescue
Posted by tedf at 06:48 PM | Comments (0)
Walking in an Iraqui's Shoes
Everybody in America ought to try these thought experiments . . .
The Blog | Larry Beinhart: Imagine (Torture & The Geneva Conventions) | The Huffington Post
Posted by tedf at 05:48 PM | Comments (0)
November 22, 2005
Another Truly Frightening Story . . .
It's news like the story below (via Daily Kos) that makes me wonder if the "adults" in the Republican Party are eventually going to turn on Bush the way they did on Nixon. I've always figured Watergate must have been less about the heroism of the Fourth Estate and more about internal government power struggles. Both the revelation that Deep Throat was the #2 guy at the FBI, and that Woodward is even more of a servant to power than previously thought, provide evidence for this hypothesis. Nixon must have just made too many enemies within his party and within the permanent government. Combine that with the JFK assassination, and it means 2 out of 3 presidents in that era were more or less pushed aside through coups of some sort. Follow that up with the Clinton impeachment and the ballot irregularities in 2000 and 2004, and the smooth transition of power through the electoral process starts to look less like the rule in modern America, and more like the exception.
If that's a very scary thought - and it is - it also leads one to wonder if the bells may soon toll for Bush, Cheney & Co. What happens as all the Republican donors who aren't in the oil business start looking at how those high prices affect their own bottom lines? It's understandable that the party owns the extractive industries, but you'd think the manufacturing and service sectors have vested interests in low energy prices, international stability, and Brand America. Plus, they may even be wondering if shifting the insurance burden to government might be the only way to salvage crushing benefits responsibilities. You figure top Foutune 500 execs may be greedy and "conservative," but they're not stupid. Or, I don't know, maybe they are . . .
Mirror.co.uk - News - EXCLUSIVE: BUSH PLOT TO BOMB HIS ARAB ALLY
Posted by tedf at 02:04 PM | Comments (0)
The Perils of Being a Blue-State Comic in Alabama
This is a fascinating post by stand-up comic Christian Finnegan (Best Week Ever, Chappelle's Show) about getting bumrushed on stage by a drunken heckler screaming, "I'VE SPENT TWO YEARS IN IRAQ! I'M FIGHTING FOR YOUR FREEDOM OF SPEECH! I'M FIGHTING FOR YOUR FUCKING FREEDOM OF SPEECH!!!" It took eight security guards to drag the guy offstage before he could rearrange Finnegan's face. Beyond the surreal incident itself, Finnegan goes on to thoughtfully examine the dilemmas of joking to the unconverted.
Christian Finnegan's Tower of Hubris
Posted by tedf at 12:20 PM | Comments (0)
November 20, 2005
On "Coming Attractions," "Best Week Ever," "Ebert and Roeper," and the Death of Cultural Criticism on TV
The oddest show among my Tivo Season Passes is undoubtedly "Coming Attractions," The E! Channel's weekly collection of new movie trailers.
The best part of the show is the beginning, where they tell you what's coming up - it's the trailer for the trailers. The worst part of the show is the current host, Michelle Merkin, who may be the most leaden speaker ever to be paid to present information on TV. Her intros always sound like she's reading them phonetically, and doesn't actually speak English. At least that would spare her from knowing that she's named after the hairpiece that lets the carpet match the drapes.
I didn't mean to be so bitchy - I just find the clunkiness of the show mystifying. Who else would watch (or Tivo) this show - tracking it through multiple rotating timeslots - other than Hollywood-savvy obsessives like myself? If that's the case, what's the point of dumbing it down? Why not at least give us Entertainment Weekly level commentary?
I guess this is a symptom of the more general dearth of intelligent movie coverage on television. For all its flaws, Ebert & Roeper remains just about the only game in town - honest judgements (though buzz-heavy summer flicks and Oscar wannabes sometimes seem to get the benefit of the doubt) and the occasiona artyl foreign film (though they often sound like they were homework assignments for Roeper - which at least makes his petulance more appealing than Ebert's credulous Europhilia). I must not be the only freak who still watches Ebert & Roeper every week, but there can't be too many of us - in just about every market I've lived in for the last ten years or so, Ebert's show has always been broadcast around 2 AM Sunday night. There is that Bart & Guber coffe klatsch on AMC - if it isn't cancelled yet - but every time I've tuned in it's been painfully smug, justs like their book. And the Sundance Channel's promo shows, like At the Angelica, are no better than an indie Access Hollywood, complete with the 5-minute junket interviews.
This is clearly the same reason there's so little good TV journalism - networks sucking up to maintain access. But just like there's a market for The Daily Show, you think there'd be a market for smart entertainment commentary on TV, if not original reporting. I guess that's what David Spade's new show thinks it's doing, although it's more like a nasty sibling to the Access Hollywood family, snickering over the same stories with just as little perspective.
Much better is VH1's Best Week Ever, of which I'm a big fan, and which is just about the most consistently funny 1/2 hour on TV these days. (The only competition I can think of are TDS and My Name Is Earl.) But is there room for anything between the snark of "The Sizzler" and the fawning of Merkin? Ebert was the watered-down-but-worthwhile TV version of Pauline Kael, and both emerged out of the cinephelia of the 60s and 70s. I don't think cinephelia is dead. I don't think film criticism is dead - check out David Edelstein, Lisa Schwarzbaum, or the crew of The Onion, for starters, for reviews that still pulse with passion and insight. But the last ten years haven't seen the emergence of the next Ebert to replace the late Gene Siskel. Maybe Ebert blew it when he picked the amiable guy's guy Roeper rather than make an edgier call. But more to the point is that no show emerged to replace Ebert and Roeper.
I don't get it. As a film teacher, I see students every day who love to talk about, read about, and write about film. I know they've got plenty of like-minded peers. There's money to be made in not talking down to them. But I guess there's more money to be made in keeping the studios happy by avoiding anything that smacks too much of insight.
Posted by tedf at 10:36 PM | Comments (0)
November 05, 2005
Electric Dreams Is Now On the Amazon Shelves!
My first book, Electric Dreams: Computers in American Culture, is now available for purchase by clicking here. It makes a great gift for Christmas, Channukah, and Kwanzaa, as well as birthdays, weddings, anniversaries, graduations, and all other festive occasions.
The combination of its broad scope, readability, and engagement with cultural theory also makes it an ideal text for both undergraduate and graduate classes on cyberculture, the history of technology, media studies, cultural studies, and American Studies. If you're considering the book for a course syllabus, you can find more information about NYU Press's examination copy policy here.
For more info on Electric Dreams, including excerpts, reviews, and updates, check out this page.
Posted by tedf at 06:20 PM | Comments (0)
November 03, 2005
19 Percent
That's Dick Cheney's approval rating. Given that he's the one who really runs the country, it's perhaps an even more relevant number than George Bush's historically low 35 percent.
United Press International - NewsTrack - Bush's job approval falls to 35 percent
Posted by tedf at 03:17 PM | Comments (0)