drat fink

cry me to the moon

the boy who cried wolf
he wore a sheepish grin
had trouble with the truth
now he takes his fizz with gin

blind ambition

the truth may set me free
but not how jesus intended
too many words spoken
and meaning is upended

my knee jerk reaction
the damage may be done
too late for a retraction
past time to get some sun

common ground

"A great untold story of our time is the staggering privatization and abuse of dozens of resources that we collectively own. The plunder is widespread,affecting public lands, the broadcast airwaves, the Internet, the public domain of knowledge and creativity, publicly funded medicines, and even our genes. As companies quietly seize our common wealth, however, our government often fails to protect us, sometimes actually giving away our common assets."

com con

as the worldcom turns: A blog about WorldCom

girls with curls

somehow missed the rondelles. kind of a cuddlier new-wavy sleater-kinney.

far far away

my favorite music file sharing agent, audio galaxy, has succumbed to rectitude no doubt under threat of lawsuit.

dhailiwood

"Well, having met the new face of global news, it seems to me that, in TV at least, the first path is the more likely. I tried so hard to like Daljit Dhaliwal, the British presenter who has just signed a mega-contract with CNN, because, apart from anything, I really don't want to be enemy number one with the net nerds for whom she is the sexiest thing since Rosie Millard. But, boy, was she uptight. When I arrived at the station's London HQ, a press officer confided to me that she was worried the interview room was on the chilly side. Actually, the temperature was fine until Dhaliwal walked in and started treating even the most innocuous questions as personal insults."

a real kick in the pants

if only we could
rewind the clock
for with each tick
it only mocks

like drops
upon the windowpane
it rolls on down
unless in spain

but lets be plain
you cant decamp
there is a flame
but no magic lamp

or faeries wand
to fend off decay
just anarrowed sign
that reads "one way"

vietnumb

"A team of scientists is providing new evidence confirming the devastating legacy of America's chemical weapons program in Vietnam -- a legacy which officials in Washington continue to question."

woodenward

"Maybe it was inevitable that time, fame, and money would tame the aggressive reporter who broke Watergate--transforming him into a stenographer of the Washington establishment who breaks only the news the reigning powers want broken. And, to be sure, there is some value to Woodward's current role. But that doesn't mean that we shouldn't call Bob Woodward's reportage what it really is. "When [the public] hear[s] ... Bob Woodward say, 'Well, according to informed sources,' what should they know about those informed sources--not the identity, but the quality of the information, the agenda or lack of agenda of the leaker?" Russert asked Woodward on Sunday. "Well, only when the opposition has a story is it called a leak," Woodward responded. "When we have a story, it's called aggressive and thorough journalism." That may have been the case thirty years ago. But with Woodward these days, it's definitely a leak."

your anchor banker

"Second, there is the Sunday Talk Show Anchor. These Sunday shows have evolved into crucial rituals of democracy in which elected and appointed officials expose themselves publicly to whatever form of humiliation the anchor and a couple of colleagues may devise. (Verbal humiliation only, so far—although CBS is said to be working on an interesting variant.) The Sunday Anchor must embody all the nation's conflicting feelings about those who exercise power over us. Contempt, deference, and bonhomie must all be on display simultaneously. NBC Meet the Press anchor Tim Russert's gift for saying, in effect, "With all due respect, Senator, you're a lying bastard. Bowling next Tuesday?"—and not any physical resemblance, which is slight at best—is why so many Americans compare his role in our national life to that of Britain's late queen mother."

word count

"That's what the offer of a "state" with no defined borders, powers, or timetable (and no right to be represented by its present leadership) is. It isn't even a bone thrown to the Palestinians. It's a picture of a bone. Bush's father was notorious for confusing the photo op of a thing ("Message: I care") with the thing itself. The son, too, seems to think that his words are equal to deeds. A month ago, when he was asked about progress in the Middle East, he noted with pride, "I gave a speech right here in the Rose Garden on April the 4th that said parties have responsibilities. … I've talked about a vision of two states." Congratulations, Mr. President. You've done it again."

family affairs

"But democracy is being eroded more by money and its power than by skilled semantics. For want of insights and data often unobtainable from the corporate media, the public opinion vital to US democracy has trouble remaining vigorous and informed. Many politicians are themselves part of the national economic elite, and others depend on that elite for campaign funding. History tells us that America overcame kindred problems in the Progressive era a century ago. The national will to do so again, however, is hardly clear."

steel your face

my buddy

"PROVIDENCE -- Vincent A. Cianci Jr., the charismatic mayor who has dominated the city for nearly three decades and is widely credited with its revival, was convicted yesterday on a federal racketeering-conspiracy charge for running a criminal enterprise from City Hall."

ashen

smoke
heat
passion darkly
revealed

kiss the girls
where the heart is
a ruby in paradise
divine secrets

love is like...
someone like....
eye of the beholder
til death do us part

next generation
natural born
double jeopardy
sisters

our friend
normal life
space ghost
a time to kill

cuffs
high crimes
farewell
blackout

olive drab

sorry for the histronic
hysterical phonics

its a simplistic heuristic
without a splash of tonic

and contrition towards inhibition
is nothing short of chronic

as the target slips within range
the sensory blips become demonic

while the radar waves are spinning
the bombadier on his plans he just sits

in the hangar in the cockpit
he measures out his splits

but the colonels and the generals
are giving each other fits

cant decide if its time for world war 3
or a case of mixolplix

dont you flyboy
way up high
in your shiny new machine

whats the use
of all that training
waiting for lights to turn from red to green

then the call came
but you complain
that you havent got the nerve

pull the choke chain
throttle back
instead of liftoff
shake and swerve

down the runway
constructing models
that have never been and never will be built

aborted mission
no transmission
you cant whirl
if you wont even tilt

hazmatch

"At a time when the Bush administration is beefing up America’s Homeland Security defences any indication of progress by the FBI should be good news, but one prominent and well-respected biowarfare expert believes the FBI has not only known the identity of the terrorist for months but has conspired with other branches of the US government to keep it secret."

signal intelligence

a breakdown in security
breaking out the boil-ease
noones paying royalties
to shoot me out of sequence

the frequency of reality
the futility of fealty
the utility of banality
is boring me to depths

the icy-hot brigade
the minted lemonade
the heart that trumps the spade
who dealt this anyway

the bunker busting bombs
armed with incendiary alms
they stormed with worlds of calm
yet the wounds would surely linger

the cipher wouldnt suffer
no need for zones to buffer
the message is quite clear
relax your guardamnation and penetrate your fear

now thats hardly a wringing endorsement

what an enlightening display
of frightening dismay

the road unraveled
more travailed than traveled

voices stinging
choices flinging

greets that do not mete

out expectations
in digestible expectorations

spit please
then rinse

rope burnout (wick wick whacked)

its a simple line
and yet im queasy
marked time with rhyme
i wish it was that easy

made my wayback down
while the sampler assailed
am i just so blind
cant even read your braille

did i not say it wrong
does it meander too much
if i skipped the trope
would you double dutch?

ok ok ok ok

the fabric of our lies
all swatches and patched together
had i known all along
would that make me feel much better

its those darn kids
and their mysterious machinations
asleep at the wheel
that is permanently vacated

put your stenciled life down
youre so cut and so pasted
and dont ever forget
that youre twice as evasive

speech impediment

the concession speech
ill make my remarks brief

i never understood
and i never will

in the money

relationship between the bush family fortunes and the financing of hitlers war machine

keepsake

still earning
piled in a worthless heap

still churning
exploring mysteries off the deep

still turning
as i feel the ours creep

still learning
that im so ing what i reap

still yearning
flailing when i should have leaped

still burning
as i lay me down to sleep

word to your mithra

a domesticated animus
a robust distrust of bluster

a social blighted plight
a jagged jettys spiral duster

a deadened eye dickered
over a matriliminal custer

with time to make a fuss
spews out the fiercest fluster

you havent got a clue
if you cant detect the lustre

luke warm
be warned

this is your final rapprochement
theyre weaving you in

you essay

theyre wearing old glory
theyre reaching their goal

yeah, you know the story
as youve lost your sole

theyre kicking it up (stairs)
while youre flagging within (stares)

its two for the cup
and one for the been

sock it to me?

plum bums

the washington post revisits watergate 30 years later.

shit kickers

caught almost all of the us victory over mexico late last night and then dozed off but woke up to see the second half of brazils defeat of belgium. mexico deserved to lose. they flopped all over the field trying to get free kicks and while the referee was obliging for most of the game eventually he wised up. the us isnt the most skillful team but they earned that game despite being on the defensive for most of the contest. so they are now among the final eight teams and will play germany friday morning.

hail pan-britannia

got a small taste of what all of england must be like today (after they dispensed with denmark 3-0 in the round of 16) as i passed the Spring Lounge at the corner of mulberry and spring sts. about 40 drunken brits were out in front of the bar singing some patriotic tune in full throat as one ran in and out of traffic draped in the irish flag. i guess thats the best they could do at the moment. and the game had been over for 5 hours. no such glee at Ceci-Cela, the french patisserie across the street as the french were ousted last week after a lackluster effort. the us backed into the next round and awaits a quick exit at the hands of mexico at 2:30 est early monday morning unless they start playing some decent defense.

code read

"But the history of the real codetalkers is no less remarkable. The idea of using Navajos to conceal the content of Marine messages came from Philip Johnston, a missionary's son who grew up on their reservation speaking the language. Of course, people have long spoken in foreign languages when they didn't want eavesdroppers to understand them. In World War I, eight Choctaws manned trench telephones for the Army's 36th Division. According to an article in the scholarly quarterly Cryptologia by Stephen Huffman, trials were made during World War II with Comanches, Ojibwas, Oneidas, Sac-Foxes and Muskogees."

valley of the dolls

"Porn probably thrives here because it would be unwelcome anywhere else. The porn industry and the valley have developed an unspoken symbiotic relationship that neither would admit. The valley's middle-class community, founded with the slogan "The Town That Started Right," saw itself evolve into "The Valley of Sin" without putting up so much as a snivel in protest. And why would they? For most of its existence, the valley was little more than a working-class refuge and a cheap source of water for Los Angeles. But ever since porn producers began setting up shop, it has turned into the epicenter of a flourishing, billion-dollar industry. While the production of feature films in Los Angeles has decreased almost 13 percent over the past decade, adult movie production is up 25 percent and rising. Americans regularly spend more than $8 billion a year on pornographic videos, an amount easily three times larger than all of Hollywood's domestic box office receipts."

red card

"Jay Nordlinger of National Review makes the move on goal that Tapped has been anticipating: namely, equating soccer appreciation with the Left. To wit:"

"It seems to me that we have surrendered to soccer -- the Left loves it, and the young ones are being indoctrinated in it. I remember my daily walks through my neighborhood in Washington, where I saw the baseball diamonds grassed over with those infernal soccer fields. I felt that we'd lost something -- and I think I know why, political neurotic that I am."

dutch treatments

"THE HAGUE — The Dutch parliament was shocked by a US legislative proposal giving an official green light to a US invasion of the Netherlands should it be deemed necessary to free US citizens from the International Criminal Court in The Hague."

did you even try?

anal probe

"Margin of Error? History of Public Opinion Polling"

plowed under

"Monsanto vs. Percy Schmeiser was heard in a Canadian court June 5 - 20, 2000. According to reports, Monsanto never directly tried to explain how their genes got into Schmeiser's field. In fact, the Western Producer, a Canadian agriculture magazine, quoted Monsanto attorney, Roger Hughes, as saying, "Whether Mr. Schmeiser knew of the matter or not matters not at all." In other words, Schmeiser's fields were contaminated by Monsanto's GM technology, and it didn't matter if Schmeiser was aware of the contamination or not. They were going to make him pay for it! Percy Schmeiser said, "It was a very frightening thing because they said it does not matter how it gets into a farmer's field; it's their property... if I would go to St. Louis (Monsanto headquarters) and contaminate their plots--destroy what they have worked on for 40 years--I think I would be put in jail and the key thrown away."

c-schtick

this christ-on-a-cross inspired photo of shrub makes me nauseous.

profiles in air rage

just your average potential terrorist - al gore? must have been due to that whole beard episode. via booknotes

hiltons head

"Hilton is the San Francisco attorney who filed a $7 billion lawsuit in U.S. District Court on June 3 against President Bush and other government officials for "allowing" the terrorist attacks to occur. "

"Among Hilton's allegations: Bush conspired to create the Sept. 11 attacks for his own political gain and has been using Osama bin Laden as a scapegoat.

"Hilton said he has information that bin Laden died several years ago of kidney failure."

runt for cover

funny Daily Show segment on bushdodging and the hyperventilating media that loves him.

offense taken

my neighbors have gone from being annoying to truly becoming a blight. when the dogs would annoy the crap out of me id try to take solace by telling myself that at least they werent ridiculously loud otherwise. but with their nearly club volume party music the other night and tonight with the stereo now a fixture on their roof accompanied by some shithead banging spastically on bongos at one in the morning, i cant but wish them a slow and painful death. they have nearly zero consideration for their neighbors. they must be pissing off people in at least eight buildings. someone must have called the police last week but that only shut them down for two hours before they cranked up the volume from midnight to 4am. how do you combat this sort of tyranny in civil society?

fork in the rude

back in the dark hoarse
of course off course

never resourceful
forever remorseful

3/4 tanked
youre aghast

tapping out dot dot dash
to make a splash

faced down in the mud
and you laugh

he was half
he was half
he was half

can i get a witless to testify?

have you ever held on?

another angle
the same scene
the rainbow bridge
the golden mean

i was half in the bag
alluding that drag time
i had to clear out
all that had been mined

whos the sweeper
whos a keeper

i get a kick out of use
cant we just call it a truce

rock me gently
rock me slowly

rock me gently
rock me slowly

rock me gently
rock me slowly

strange brood

"Strange ramblings in Woody Creek: A conversation on drugs, politics and the 30th anniversary of Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas with outlaw journalist Hunter S. Thompson"

peking duck

"BEIJING (Reuters) - Beijing's most popular newspaper has unwittingly republished a bogus story about U.S. Congress threats to skip town for Memphis or Charlotte unless Washington builds them a new Capitol building with a retractable dome. The source? America's celebrated spoof tabloid, the Onion."

back to the beat

"Bush's premise is mistaken. Clinton didn't understand the meaning of "is"; Bush doesn't understand the meaning of "could." Bush talks about stopping terrorism as though it's a matter of goodwill: He's a decent person, so if he fails to stop an attack, the reason must be that he couldn't have done so. But "could" doesn't imply "would." The latter conveys certainty; the former conveys possibility. In fighting terrorism, possibility, not certainty, should be the operative principle. It suits the complex nature of investigation, gives agents practical guidance, and is a standard to which politicians and bureaucrats can reasonably be held. The question to ask about each step not taken in the months leading up to Sept. 11 is not whether it would have prevented the attacks but whether it would have kept alive a chain of investigation making that outcome possible."

soft landing

"After more than a decade of munificent salary-and-stock packages, many of America's corporate chieftains are departing with big retirement packages, provoking anger among some worker and shareholder activists."

"We're seeing the most obnoxious compensation packages in history" at a time when fewer workers have guaranteed retirement income, said John Hotz, deputy director of the Pension Rights Center, a nonprofit consumer organization."

cutting remarks

"There is zero evidence of box-cutters on either plane that hit the World Trade Center. Not a single flight crew member or passenger on American Airlines Flight 11 or United Airlines Flight 175 reported seeing box-cutters or plastics knives. Nor were they mentioned in the FAA executive summary on any of the hijacked plane.(LINK FAA MEMO.) Only on American Airlines Flight 77, which hit the Pentagon, was there a near-mention by one passenger that the hijackers in the back of the plane had knives and "card-board cutters," and even that passenger to claim to see what weapons were actually used to hijack the plane. The claim by administration officials that plastic knives were used to hijack the planes is pure invention."

kashmir spacestation

"WASHINGTON – Bitter disputes over territory. Suicide bombings. Threats of retaliation. International attempts to calm roiled passions.

The Middle East? Yes – and South Asia. Although there are important differences between the Israeli–Palestinian struggle and the standoff between India and Pakistan over Kashmir, the similarities between the situations are striking."

88 lines about 44 airmen

"An Air Force officer has been relieved from duties at the Presidio of Monterey after publication of his letter to the editor accusing President George W. Bush of having advance knowledge of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks."

musical accompaniment from 88 lines on mp3

blue jean baby, come what maybe

never swept you off your feet
never knew your favorite treat
never walked a mile in your shoes
never said, i have nothing to lose
never smiled without a frown
never saw your wedding gown

just a girl with low riding genes
you crack me up
with all my seems (showing)

sovereign of the seizure

dreaming of the seas
a blank spate of unease
from out of the trees (i heard)
cant slake the diseased word

the doppelganger effect
my face is all whet
and ive only reached the 12th floor
of the 39 steppes

mired in admired
my lags have grown tired
need a jab before im fired (up)
the song is over but im still wired (cup to cup)

the why-r-less phone
an attack of the growns
overcome with the gloom
see you reel soon

unless your afraid of my parents nagging

i heard the black man wheezing
and the barges barge din

i saw the guide lights gleaming
through the buildings reflecting skin

and the old ways peeling off
like fake painted grins

wondering if id had enough
of darkness in the city lights

of sailboats lapping
at trite rites

accentuate the positive fright
right?

say goodnight gracie
good night

huh?

taking pictures
its perfect
just one look
and youre suspect
now walk away
before someone
gets hurt

rivalting behavior

im happy to see that fifa is trying to combat fake injuries. theres nothing more odious than fake flops in basketball to draw phantom fouls and soccer players pretending to be more hurt than they are to prejudice the referees into ascribing more punitive penalties. i hate that win at all cost mentality. just play the damn game.

nothing plus nothing equals nothing

saw 13 Conversations About One Thing tonight. i wish it had been about one thing or anything for that matter. could not wait for it to be over. it was stilted and dull and a waste of talent. should have seen The Cats Meow instead or braved Cremaster 3. and theres always princess midriff and the lightsabres of doom but even the geeks and movie hacks can bear to give it only a passing grade.

book mobile

bought a couple of those things with alot of words in them and didnt buy a couple more. purchased James Bamfords Body Of Secrets: Anatomy of the Ultra Secret National Security Agency and Susan Tifft and Alex Jones The Trust: The Private and Powerful Family Behind The New York Times. Didnt buy but wanted Hilary Ballons New Yorks Pennsylvania Stations and Robert Caros The Power Broker: Robert Moses and the Fall of New York. now all i have to do is actually read them.

kickstart

my sister sent me a mattel classic football. and while growing up i had mattel basketball and mattel soccer, it was my duty to inform her that we had coleco electronic quarterback and not the mattel version. the coleco was and is superior because it had blockers and a passing option. whats football without passing. and, of course, when you scored a touchdown it would play the song Onward To Victory. i guess it was the notre dame victory march.

and dont forget to wake up tonight at 5am for the us vs portugal. im guessing theres a 25% chance i will. ive seen some of the 2:30am games and some of the 7:30am games but the 5am game is by far the most difficult to manage.

heavenly creatures

"The pursuit of that ancient heavenly connection has lately moved near center stage at NASA, which assembled some 100 astronomers, physicists, chemists, geologists and even a few biologists at the Space Telescope Science Institute on the Johns Hopkins University campus recently to talk about extraterrestrial life."

apartment hunting

dressed to the 10s

golden goal

"Standing-room-only crowds -- at times more than 300 people -- have been flocking to Summers about 1:30 every morning since the World Cup started Friday, 13 time zones away in Seoul. They flip-flopped their circadian rhythms, setting alarms on wristwatches and radio clocks for a punishing nocturnal schedule just to see every kick, every penalty, every header in real time."

m&ms

anybody notice an upsurge of classic micro/minicars on the streets of new york?

eros and psyche

"GEOFFREY MILLER: My goal at this point really is to take evolutionary psychology the next step, and to apply standard of evolutionary theory as much as possible to explain the whole gamut of the human mind, human emotions, human social life, human sexual behavior as much as possible. I'm especially interested in looking at areas that have been relatively ignored or overlooked in the standard evolutionary psychology so far. For example, in Steve Pinker's book How the Mind Works there's a very good discussion of vision, memory, emotions,-but some of the most interesting aspects of the human mind, such as art, music, humor and religion tend to get relatively slighted, and it's apparent that we don't have very good explanations of them yet. I'm very interested in applying sexual selection ideas to explain some of those areas, but I'm quite open to any new ideas that come along that take seriously those aspects of human nature that have not been taken seriously before."

flower power

kelp on the way

show me the funny

harry shearers "Le Show"

surrealist pillowtalkie

"From a previously unpublished film script by Salvador Dali, written in 1937 for the Marx Brothers. Dali, who was a fan of the comedians, had befriended Harpo Marx the year before. The film, entitled Giraffes on Horseback Salads, was never made, reportedly because MGM, which had an exclusive contract with the Marx Brothers, felt it was too surreal. The script, which Dali wrote in English, was recently discovered among Dali's papers; it is owned and was made available by the Fundació Gala-Salvador Dalí in Figueres, Spain. Apart from roles for the Marx Brothers, the script includes a character called the 'Surrealist woman' and a Spanish businessman named Jimmy."

weapons of mass distraction

"American military chiefs are developing plans to use Valium as a potential weapon against enemy forces and to control hostile populations, according to official documents seen by The Observer."

"The Pentagon has also asked scientists to evaluate proposals to use genetically modified bugs that 'eat' the enemy's fuel and ammunition supplies without harming humans."

mayor mcjesus

"The Full Rudy: The Man, the Mayor, the Myth"

not for sale

"Roddick is the founder of the Body Shop, the notable socially-responsible health-and-beauty store chain. She resigned as co-chair of the company this February to dedicate herself to activism full-time. Roddick has lots to say (she recently edited a book called Take it Personally, it's out now from Harper Collins) and she keeps a politically oriented "blog" (or Web log). Driving major traffic to one's site is almost impossible without advertising or good search engine placement, as bloggers know. Roddick advertised on the popular Google engine -- or did until they took exception to what she had to say."

show off

maxspeaks annotated bennett v. chomsky tete a tete on cnn.

barak2barak

Camp David and After: An Exchange (1. An Interview with Ehud Barak)

Camp David and After: An Exchange (2. A Reply to Ehud Barak)

not butter?

But what Fleischer does, for the most part, is not really spin. It's a system of disinformation--blunter, more aggressive, and, in its own way, more impressive than spin. Much of the time Fleischer does not engage with the logic of a question at all. He simply denies its premises--or refuses to answer it on the grounds that it conflicts with a Byzantine set of rules governing what questions he deems appropriate. Fleischer has broken new ground in the dark art of flackdom: Rather than respond tendentiously to questions, he negates them altogether.

mission creep

"the life and death of pablo escobar"