» Fringe Blog – Writing on Film, Culture, and Things on the Fringe

Playing Not To Lose

jelewis8 — Thu, 23 Mar 2006 17:21:40 +0000

The world can be a great sunshiney ball of happiness. But clearly, there are things wrong with it that need to be fixed NOW through community and working together and impeaching President Bush and mollifying those downtrodden Middle Eastern folk who’ve been oppressed by cartoons and oil barons all their lives (Halliburton, I’m looking at you!). We could solve these various dilemmas in short order if only we were to enact the following:
1) Higher taxes for the rich
2) Cease and desist all war activities
3) Bush is a terrorist
I was thinking about the plan Democrats have put out for fixing the world, and I realized I wasn’t sure what it was. A bit of research and I came up with the above three-pronged system. Now, I’m as much a fan of the second point as anyone, so long as the other guys also agree to 4) Cease and desist from blowing up innocent civilians and developing long range chemical and biological weaponry.
I don’t deny that President Bush is strong on defense but weak on national matters, and what’s worse, he’s a pigeon turd-bombing a picnic at PR, which his opponents use to make his strengths seem like weaknesses. So the Republicans don’t have a terribly tenable position. Except for one fact: their opponents are Democrats, which is about as fair as pitting a cat against an Centaurian battle fleet. Even when the Republicans screw up, the Democrats have nothing of substance. Then there’s the self-sabotage.
It’s no secret how most Democrats feel about the war. What’s astonishing is their view of Bush as basically a really stupid, but totally evil, puppet. Behind the strings, or with his fingers up Bush’s backside, is Satan. That’s how bad it’s gotten. Even their portrayal of the man is uneven. He’s a chimp…but he somehow tricked everyone into the war; he’s a mental midget…yet somehow he’s managed to elude stupidity prosecution; he lied and people died…but people in the Middle East and the South seem to love him; he’s obviously a racist…yet blacks are deserting the Democratic party in droves. What gives? Is this a party of answers, or cue cards for a karaoke song played endlessly?
Coupled with a media that has done its best to paint everything Bush does as the incarnation of totalitarianism, you have the making of a major religion. They’ve got their sins, their virtues, their belief in the infallibility of their mouthpieces, the inviolability of the liberal doctrine and its missionary spread across the globe. They’ve even got their anti-Christ. All they lack is a messiah.
Here’s the fun part: those top-tiered Dems with money to spare for election campaigns and full-page anti-war advertisements, don’t actually believe in things like taxing the rich. Oh, they say they do, but look at their tax returns, and you find every possible loophole exploited for maximum return, minimum excretion. John Kerry paid less in taxes than Dubya last year, even though he’s worth more. And a fix for the messy business of war in Iraq and Afghanistan? Not an alternative solution in sight. As for Bush himself, they’re reduced to making up resolutions to censure Bush and then voting against their own resolution for fear of uniting the Republicans around national security, which they know they’re weak on, and which they know, deep down, they have little valid criticism on which to stand. But introduce the possibility of censure, and it gets in the public’s mind. The media massages it until you find out Bush was actually responsible for the Holocaust.
Oh wait, that was just an anti-war sign, one of many at the faltering, paltry anti-war protests playing out like a sad, fourth run theatrical showing. Seems lately they’re more interested in protesting the evil puppet master Bush than the war. And which war are they protesting, anyway? Afghanistan? That’s not a war, that’s a couple guys with AK’s shooting wildly into the air, hoping to hit anyone who looks like they’re wearing a US uniform. Iraq? Well…is it a war or an occupation? Maybe they’re protesting the so-called civil war, though if it was really a civil war, wouldn’t we see legitimate government factions fighting against each other? Unless terrorists have suddenly become bonified, I’d say we have more of a tribal conflict than a civil war. Either way, Bush started it, if you ask any protester. Get ‘im outta here.
There’s a term in sports when you’re ahead and you begin playing conservatively. It’s called ‘playing not to lose’. The Dems have been playing it for six straight years. The sad thing is, they were never ahead to begin with.

Fringecast 2

jelewis8 — Sat, 25 Feb 2006 08:10:36 +0000

The new Fringecast (click to listen directly) is now available for your listening pleasure. It’s another amazing bit of internet chatter as Joe Blum and I discuss everything from nude Olympics to losing weight by channelling your inner child. John Irwin talks about the 1968 movie Barbarella, and we also discuss the Mars initiative unveiled by President Bush last month. The link to the news item can be found here.
You can subscribe to the Fringecast via iTunes, or by adding this to your feedreader. You can find previous podcasts available on the sidebar, below the Fringecast subscribe graphic.

The Way Things Should Be

jelewis8 — Fri, 20 Jan 2006 06:09:47 +0000

Some days were never meant to wake up. They should just throw the covers back over their heads and sleep until 10. Today was one of those days, which is why I slept until almost 9. I’ve developed a new and superhuman habit of waking up at a fairly regular time of about 8AM, give or take ten minutes. And by superhuman, I mean everyone in the freaking world can do it, but since I find it extraordinary, I will consider myself one of the ubermensch. Not that I have a trace of German in my blood. It’s just lack of sleep that makes me talk crazy. On to the news of the day.
To date, I have sold less than ten copies of Red State on DVD. This is troublesome on a number of levels, including one that rivals President Bush’s fiduciary nincompoopery. To wit, I have achieved a state of mercantile imbalance, whereby my earnings have no chance of topping my production costs. Now, I’m no MBA, but it strikes me that this is a particularly unenviable position. Moreover, as I understand it, it takes someone of unparalleled moronic disposition to fail to account for various cost factors such as raw materials.
The tally of my financial ruin is thankfully less than triple digits…but not by much. In truth, I’m a bit more altruistic than I let on. My fondest hope is that purchasers of the DVD will find it to be an enjoyable and entertaining product (I refuse to say “experience”–it’s a DVD, not an experience!), with enough value to warrant a few laughs and chuckles throughout. I put a lot of effort into the DVD, and I think it shows. It’s a damn fine piece of work, if I may say so myself, and that’s after accounting for the gaffs, miscues, and sloppiness on my part during DVD development (I somehow lost an entire interview with my roommate Tim Fescoe for the Voiceover Featurette).
The movie is pretty good too. The Director Commentary is not one of my finest, I will admit, but it was my 3^rd attempt at recording it. It just wasn’t meant to be a very successful DC. But it’s there. With 50% less “Um’s!”
On the writing side, I’ve been formulating Book 2 of The Cold Goodbye. I’ve got a fantastic opening that should make the ending of Book 1 seem like the prologue to a children’s story. It’s explosive, sexy, and salient. Strangely silent too, though I’ll let you guess as to what that might mean.
I was considering entering my book into the Lulu Blooker Contest. Those who have read it might like to comment at this point. I’m waiting for wailing and gnashing of teeth and cries for mercy. If I don’t hear anything, I won’t enter. If I do and the suggestions are polite but firmly in the negative, I also won’t do it. So the onus is on you, my friends. But this is one situation where apathy will only help you!
Unless you liked the book. I take compliments well.

An Exit Strategy Timetable

jelewis8 — Thu, 16 Jun 2005 05:28:35 +0000

Senator Russ Feingold has introduced a resolution calling for Bush to set a timetable and a list of goals and actions to begin exiting Iraq for good. From the website:

“I have introduced a resolution that calls on President Bush to define the mission of our military in Iraq, set a plan to accomplish that mission and establish a timeframe for the withdrawal of US troops, so that we can provide some clarity with regard to our intentions and restore confidence at home and abroad.”

I doubt any such resolution will garner much appreciation from folks who simply want us out NOW NOW NOW. Any defined mission (other than to exit Iraq) will be met with acrimony, any plan to accomplish said mission (again, other than to exit Iraq) will be decried, and any timetable set won’t be fast enough.
The problem is the military is being used now as an enforcement tool rather than a…military. That tends to be bad for infrastructure, since enforcement generally takes precedence over rebuilding (which is why many reports from Baghdad, Kabul, Mosul, etc mention the horrible living conditions that were present under Saddam, but which have been exacerbated by his overthrow and the subsequent vaccuum left behind).
However, to exit before Iraq has the national will to both run itself and eliminate (or diminish) the threat from domestic terror (or insurgency, if you like) would be fatal to the entire purpose of the war effort and democratic reform process.
So the question is (and always has been) when will we know when it is well and truly time to leave? Neither Bush, nor Rumsfeld, nor any politician or military personnel, nor even any Iraqi or Middle Eastern resident know the answer to that. It is a question, not of timetables and exit strategies, but of the collective abilities of all to discern the times and determine, when the time finally is right, how to go about leaving Iraq for good.
I just don’t think anyone can or is ready to answer that, and to do so prematurely through a specific timetable, is to knock on the door of disaster.

John Kerry, Reluctant Warrior

jelewis8 — Thu, 04 Mar 2004 23:54:23 +0000

Via Opinion Journal, Debra Saunders finds Kerry’s explanation of Bush’s address to the UN on the eve of war in October of 2002 suspect. And no wonder, Kerry claimed Bush lied by telling the truth.

IT’S AN ODD campaign gimmick, but Sen. John F. Kerry, D-Mass., often tells voters that he was “misled” and that’s why he voted for an October 2002 resolution authorizing military force against Iraq.
Kerry says he believed the resolution tied President Bush to promises to build an international coalition, to work with the United Nations and only go to war as a last resort. A disappointed Kerry now says Bush failed in all three venues.

Fair enough. I suppose that one might think that if one didn’t know of Bush’s activities in the UN before the war. This is what Bush told the UN a month before Kerry voted YES to grant war powers to Bush:

“Saddam Hussein has defied the United Nations 16 times. Not once, not twice — 16 times he has defied the U. N. The U.N. has told him after the (Persian) Gulf War what to do, what the world expected, and 16 times he’s defied it. And enough is enough. The U.N. will either be able to function as a peacekeeping body as we head into the 21st century, or it will be irrelevant. And that’s what we’re about to find out.“

Okay, Mr. Kerry, what do you have to say about that?

“I think that you had a hard-line group (then Pentagon adviser) Richard Perle, (Deputy Defense Secretary) Paul Wolfowitz and probably (Vice President Dick) Cheney. But when Brent Scowcroft and Jim Baker (former advisers to the first President Bush) weighed in, very publicly in op-eds in the New York Times and the (Washington) Post, the chatter around Washington and (Secretary of State Colin) Powell in particular, who was very much of a different school of thought, was really that the president hadn’t made up his mind. He was looking for an out. That’s what a lot of people thought.“

Interesting. And so what Bush said…

“That was ‘rhetorical’. So most people, actually on the inside, really felt that (Bush) himself was looking for the way out to sort of satisfy Cheney, satisfy Wolfowitz, but not get stuck. The fact that he jumped and went the other way, I think, shocked them and shocked us.“

Can I say that John Kerry mislead America about his belief that he was mislead by Bush about going to war with Iraq because some things he has said DON’T EFFING MAKE SENSE?!!!!
(Ed. You can, but remember, he did serve in Vietnam.)
He gives “talking out of both sides of his mouth” a new definition.

Economy Up! Democrats Spin!

jelewis8 — Wed, 05 Nov 2003 20:31:30 +0000

This was too good not to post.
The US economy has eight straight quarters of growth. That’s two years of economic improvement, versus only one quarter that the Democrats are using as a flimsy platform from which to attack Bush. But that’s not the best news. Unemployment, yes, is at 6.1%. But look at the number of people who are employed. According to the US Bureau of Labor, 1.6 million more Americans are employed than were employed at the end of Clinton’s presidency.

The number of people working in January, 2001, when George Bush took office: 136.0 million.
The number of people employed as of September 2003: 137.6 million.

Holy crap! Read on.

That’s right. There are 1.6 million more Americans working today than at the end of the Clinton administration. So, how is it that Democrats can claim millions of jobs lost under President Bush? And how come the unemployment rate is higher now than when Bush took office?
Simple. First, there have been layoffs. Lots of them. But layoffs don’t matter much if those people quickly find jobs. As the BLS stats show, many of them have found jobs. But the working-age population has grown faster than the number of jobs – according to the BLS, the civilian labor force numbered 142 million when Bush took office, and by September 2003 it had grown to 146.5 million. So even though the Bush economy – after two years of fitful growth – has achieved a level of employment unmatched in history, the unemployment rate still has risen, from 4.2 percent when George Bush took office to 6.1 percent now.
Five numbers are key ? the unemployment rate, the number of unemployed people, the number of employed people, and size of the workforce, and the ratio of employment to working-age population.
In September 2003, the unemployment rate of 6.1 percent reflects 9 million people unemployed. The employment-population ratio – the proportion of the population age 16 and older with jobs was 62.0 percent in September.
In January 2001, the month Bush took office, the number of unemployed rose by about 300,000 to nearly 6.0 million, pushing the unemployment rate to 4.2 percent. And the employment-population ratio was 64.5 percent.
The Clinton economy peaked in April 2000, just before the technology-driven stock market bubble burst. That month, the unemployment rate was 3.9 percent, total employment stood at 135.7 million, and the employment-population ratio stood at 64.9 percent, a record high.
By December of 2000, the last full month of Clinton’s administration, the unemployment rate had risen a bit to t 4 percent, there were 5.7 million people unemployed, and total employment stood at a new high of 135.8 million. But the employment-population ratio had fallen to 64.5 percent.

Um…just read the whole thing.
Via HobbesOnline

Water, Water Everywhere

jelewis8 — Fri, 17 Oct 2003 00:00:01 +0000

Concerned about the appearance of disarray and feuding within his administration as well as growing resistance to his policies in Iraq, President Bush – living up to his recent declaration that he is in charge – told his top officials to “stop the leaks” to the media, or else.
News of Bush’s order leaked almost immediately.

All’s I can say is, Bush better get a handle on his administration or he’s going to be heading back to Texas next year.

“This isn’t as bad as [George] Shultz vs. [Caspar] Weinberger, is it?” [Bush] asked, referring to a legendary Reagan administration rivalry between secretaries of state and defense. One top official reportedly nodded and said it was “way worse.”
The infighting has strained Bush’s patience.

As well it should. He’s got enough problems on his hands, what with everybody on the Left side of the friggin’ world wanting to skewer him. The Big Four need to convo with some serious rearrangement of their particular beefs. Solidarity is the only thing that’s going to keep this administration together. A house divided, and all that.

Hat Tip: Ipse Dixit

Iraqi Scientists Targeted

jelewis8 — Mon, 06 Oct 2003 17:28:34 +0000

I’m not saying this is proof of WMD existence in Iraq, by any means, but you gotta admit that it’s a little weird that top Iraqi scientists are being targeted if they collaborate with the US in the search for WMD. If they don’t exist, why would scientists fear for their lives for telling the US that they don’t exist. Just something to ponder.
In other WMD news, this article reveals more interesting findings from the Kay report. Most telling:

For now, however, the obvious conclusion from even this interim report is that pre-emptive military action did preclude the future threat apparent in Kay’s discoveries. There is every reason to believe, based on Saddam Hussein’s past crimes and aggression, that he posed a threat to his own people, to his neighbors and, sooner or later, to those he considered his international arch-enemies, the United States and its principal allies.
President Bush, drawing the needed lessons from the catastrophic terrorist attacks of 9/11, hardly needs to apologize for acting before Saddam’s evil regime could produce a new arsenal of horror weapons.

To The Champions of 9.11

jelewis8 — Thu, 11 Sep 2003 16:09:23 +0000

The changing face of the world still has left little recognizeable memories of pre-9.11 days. Americans are growing again sleepy and self-congratulatory as another year passes without a terrorist incident in our land. Bipartisanship is back, due in part to a large and growing contingent of dissatisfied politicians and media entities bent on he ruination of President Bush’s reputation, name, and policies. An overwhelming sense of frustration fills the citizenry, bolstered by the lackluster job market and seeming failures of the policies of Bush’s administration. Top it off with negative reports from Iraq and Afghanistan (when it’s reported!) that are pretty clearly false and isolated indicators of a fictionalized chaos from a media that can’t even defend itself from cries of partisanship. What remains is a populace battered on one side by an overwhelmingly liberal and negative media crush and bruised on the other by inadequate economic policies from a President who seems to have forgotten his non terrorist-fighting duties.

Yet you have prevailed. Against the threat of terrorism you stood firm and saw through the mounds of bullcrap and lies coming out of the orifice that is the media. You put your money where your mouth is, contributing your time, money, energy, and lives to help us all remember. You carried us through a recession and back onto the playing field of the world economy, all the while footing a huge bill to take down the enemy and establish democracy-friendly governments in their place – that campaign continues, and your support is unwavering, unlike the quivering politicians and media outlets who fear the ill-will of a few crustaceans and a terrorist population whose continued attacks only strengthen your resolve.
May you who have won over the great disdain of many continue to prevail and shine like lights. May the God we love continue to make us strong and hold out against the forces of darkness in this world.
“He will wipe every tear from their eyes. There will be no more death or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things has passed away.”

Baghdad Bush

jelewis8 — Thu, 28 Aug 2003 11:08:05 +0000

A Baghdad mother and father, to show their thanks to President Bush for the overthrow of Saddam Hussein, have named their son after the American leader.

But I thought Bush = Hitler. Those commies at IndyMedia deceived me!