Archive for October, 2008

Apparently, Stevens told his constituents, he has not been convicted. He thinks the case that is pending is over prosecutorial misconduct. For those of you not in the know, Stevens was convicted of seven felony counts of failing to report gifts (about $250,000) from an oil company. This is crazy stuff. He seems to honestly believe himself. I hope delusions aren’t contagious and I hope the state of Alaska steps up and ousts this liar. Here is the link:
Ted Stevens: Crazy, or Senile?

Enjoy some tricks, some treats, and seeing a lot Sarah Palins.

Always skeptical, never cynical
Adam Feser

I received a response to my original Ted Stevens post that I thought warranted some attention.
Here is the comment:
Bill Clinton…wasnt he guilty too! Both republicans and democrats do wrong…get over it.

I think this warrants a response because it implies that we should just accept corruption as a part of the system. I disagree and think we deserve more. We should never accept it, that is why we have democracy. Here is my response:

First of all, Bill Clinton lied about fellatio, Stevens lied about gifts (bribes) form oil companies. Which do you think leads to more government corruption?

Second of all, why does that make it right? I normally support democrats, but that doesn’t mean I will be okay with one of them being corrupt just because republicans are too. That does not make it okay.

This is a terrible argument. You’re basically saying you accept large amounts of corruption because both sides do it. You also make a comparison to Bill Clinton’s ordeal, which is in no way analogous.

Why should I get over it? Why should I be okay with Senator Stevens being bribed? Republicans should hate this guy. He is the king of pork. He is dragging down the party. Why on earth would you try to defend this? Why should we get over government corruption? We should be pissed about it under any circumstances and any party.

Getting over it is exactly what shouldn’t be done.

I hope that more people share my sentiment.

Enjoy thousands of multi-colored maps, because they are a-comin’.

Always skeptical, never cynical
Adam Feser

Apparently McCain has decided not to be out-rogued by Palin. For all of their talk of staying on message, McCain just undercut everything he and Palin have been saying for weeks. In this Larry King interview, McCain admits that Obama is not a socialist. So he is admitting he and Palin have been lying right to people’s faces. He knew Obama wasn’t a socialist, but still said it and had Palin say it for weeks. This should be a big deal, but I doubt it will be. If McCain knows Obama is not a socialist, why would he say he was. Oh yeah, McCain is willing to sell his soul/destroy his reputation to win this thing. It’s somewhat ironic that one of the main reasons McCain is going to lose this election is that he wanted to win it so badly he would do and say anything. Like I said in an earlier post, I’m starting to feel a little bad for him. I once respected him, then he sold out his beliefs, and now he seems tired and washed up. It’s the stuff tragedies are made of.
Here’s the link:
McCain admits Obama not socialist

Enjoy whatever ridiculous tactic the McCain comes up with next. It should be good.

Always skeptical, never cynical
Adam Feser

I wrote earlier that Ted Stevens was guilty with pretty much no other commentary. Then I had a thought that blew my mind, so I decided to investigate it. The first article I read told of how Stevens still thinks he can win his election in Alaska. With the support he has received in the past, it is not impossible. My first thought was the Stevens, a convicted felon, will not be able to vote in his election but will be able to stroll into the Senate and vote for the entire state of Alaska. This seemed baffling to me. If convicted felons aren’t allowed to vote because their judgment is questioned, why on earth can they be US senators? Here is one article:

Stevens convicted for seven-felony string of charges

You can see why I was confused. Then I found this article saying that Stevens will be allowed to vote because they case isn’t final yet. I wonder if other convicted felons are awarded grace periods. Here is that article:

Stevens allowed to vote

The fact still remains that Stevens could win the election and a convicted felon could be allowed to vote in the Senate but not in elections (Alaska would eventually have to recognize that he is a convicted felon). I know it is unlikely that he will win and that people wan him to step down, but he is one stubborn curmudgeon.

Do you think he would lobby for a bill that allows felons to vote? If a felon has paid their debt to society, what is the reason we don’t allow them to vote? I’m just curious. Once a sentence is served, someone should be able to vote, shouldn’t they?

Now I’m off topic. I just thought the idea that we don’t allow convicted felons to vote but we allow one to be a member of Congress was interesting.

Enjoy the Celtics crushing teams.

Always skeptical, never cynical
Adam Feser

Members of the McCain campaign have been becoming increasingly upset because Sarah Palin has gone off topic a few tiimes. So “going rogue” means she hasn’t said what was scripted.

This is what people hate about politics. If she says even one thing not okayed by the campaign she is out of control. I thought part of what made her a good selection was that she was charming and real. What is so real about saying and reading only what is written for you?

Getting upset about her speaking her mind a few times implies that this entire time she has been saying only what people told her to say. Is she a VP candidate or a fembot? This is ridiculous. She isn’t allowed to have original thoughts or say what she thinks because McCain’s people don’t want her to. This is indicative of how little they think of her abilities. They trust her only to read what is approved. Anyone with a fourth grade education is apparently qualified to be McCain’s running mate.

This also means that calling Obama a terrorist-loving, Marx-embracing, plumber hater was completely on message. It was fine to make ridiculous accusations about Obama being a terrorist hugger, but calling robocalls annoying is completely out of line. Weird.

Enjoy the GOP pointing fingers.

Always skeptical, never cynical
Adam Feser

YOUNG WOMAN: Are we getting closer and closer to, like, socialism and stuff?. . .
MCCAIN: Here’s what I really believe: That when you reach a certain level of comfort, there’s nothing wrong with paying somewhat more.

That was what McCain had to say in 2000. We already know he has sold out his beliefs trying to get elected, so this is no surprise. It just shows the desperation of McCain and Palin. Palin herself has endorsed socialism. I am posting a link to an article in the New Yorker and also a video of Keith Olbermann showing how Palin was all about socialism recently. He takes forever getting there, but he gets the point across. The New Yorker article is interesting because it gives a little bit of the history of socialism and the difference in its connotations in America and Europe.
Here is the link and video:

The Latest Negative Turn

A little while ago, this would have really made me mad. This is obviously a ploy and McCain and Palin know it. They don’t even believe what they’re saying (although Palin may be able to convince herself). But I almost feel sorry for McCain. He knows he is going down and he is willing to destroy his reputation trying to stay alive. He’s betting the house and about to lose. It is kind of sad.

Enjoy three innings of cold baseball.

Always skeptical, never cynical
Adam Feser

I was really hoping to have some more politically-based blogs up before I did this, but I slacked off today.  I would wait, but we need your help.  If you haven’t watched Pushing Daisies yet, get on the ball.  It is a beautiful, cute, amazing show.  Imagine if Tim Burton decided to make a TV show that was about 1/4 as dark as his movies, was funny, and had characters that are absolutely lovable that are written and acted amazingly.  That sounds too good to be true, right.  Wrong!  Pushing Daisies is that amazing.  The problem is that it does not have many viewers.  Everyone in their right mind should be watching this.  It is in the second season, but you can catch most of the shows online.  If you prefer to see it on the screen, rent the first season.  

The only reason I ask that you watch this is that it is close to disappearing.  In this era, losing a good television show means there is just one more soul-destroying reality show.  Enough is enough!  We need to get behind TV shows that like this one before we end up with the old Blue’s Clues host hosting some show with hundreds of aspiring actresses holding sacks full of money for some moron willing to embarrass him/herself with horrible reality scripts in order to get five minutes of fame for doing something grotesque.  Networks cancel the best shows because few people hear about them.  (Best non-Simpsons TV show ever?  Arrested Development.  Ever watched it?  Unlikely.  Buy the DVDs and thank me later.)  It is because of these reasons that I beg whoever reads this to watch Pushing Daisies.  We almost lost Friday Night Lights this year, let’s not make the same mistake with this show.

I promise to focus on political issues now.  But Sunday will have a sports post. monday a movie post, and tuesday a TV post from now on.  If you’re looking for something a little different from me, these should do the trick.  I will still focus on political issues, but it is nice to write about something else every so often.  Thank you for your cooperation.

Enjoy Pushing Daisies, please!

Always skeptical, never cynical
Adam Feser

Every Sunday I take my girlfriend, Amanda, to a movie. (Her father Brian often comes as well. Dude knows movies.) I decided I just as well start letting you know what I thought. This is the first Movie Review Monday.

This weeks move: Pride and Glory

I did not particularly wish to see this movie, but Amanda reminded me that it had Edward Norton, so we went. I really wish I had talked her into catching the 3-D version of The Nightmare Before Christmas that was showing.

This movie is about a family of cops and how they deal with a scandal.  This movie takes great pains to remind you that it is a cop movie.  There is some alcoholism, a divorce, they’re Irish, they swear a lot, and they spit clichés about protecting their own.

I don’t mind a large amount of bad words in a movie.   A lot of my favorites use them quite liberally.  But in Pride and Glory the swearing seems to occur because they couldn’t figure out how to write decent dialogue.  F’ing is said all the time, and it doesn’t seem natural.  It’s just there.  During what one assumes they wanted to be an intense moment, the phrase from which the movie gets its title is ruined by the word “f’ing” (pride and f’ing glory, like the word somehow gave it more meaning).

Norton is good, but he could only do so much.  There were several side plots that were completely unnecessary that made the movie drag on forever.  These little parts of the movie seemed to have no place in it.  It runs just over two hours, but it felt like three.

The ending did not make sense to me.  It’s not that I didn’t understand what happened, I didn’t understand why it had to happen as it did.  There had to be a better way.  There was a cool fight, but why?  Something with a hostage thrown in.  The portion at the end that made the most sense was a riot (portrayed as some form of a race riot), and that isn’t saying much.

Maybe the horrible camera work at the beginning just turned me off to the rest of the movie.  It seems like any time there is unconvincing action or emoting, the camera shakes more and more these days.  If four cops dying isn’t enough to let you know that something serious is happening, the nausea you feel from the camera work will get the point across.

Perhaps if they hadn’t there was a revelation left for the second half of the movie it would have been better. Maybe they didn’t have to show all the bad guys being absolutely bad from the beginning.  At least they could have cut out the little side stories that were irrelevant.

Not everyone may dislike this movie as much as I did, but I thought it was just bad.  If you want to see a good cop movie that deals with corruption, rent The Departed.  If you own or have already seen it, watch it again and save some money.  If you insist on going to the theater, Body of Lies was pretty good.  Want to see Norton as a cop?  Watch Red Dragon.  If you read this and decide to go anyway, don’t say I didn’t warn you when at least 12 lines make you cringe (conservative estimate).

Rating: Catch it on cable at 3:00 a.m. in 4 years.

Enjoy something else.

Always skeptical, never cynical
Adam Feser

No surprise here. I just felt I should say something. Guilty. There ya go.

That is all.

I wrote earlier about a possible civil war breaking out in the GOP, and it appears things are going to get heated. Palin supporters are turning on Palin haters with those looking for a bright Romney future caught in the middle (or something?). It sounds like there is an attempt to “excommunicate” members who trashed Palin. If they decide to excommunicate the Palin supporters right back for screwing the party, we could have an old-fashioned Great Schism in the Republican Party. In this analogy, would Frum and his ilk be the Eastern Orthodox and the pro-Palin crowd Roman Catholic? Would that make the Romney crowd the…Protestant? This analogy obviously has nothing to do with actual religion, so don’t take offense. Jim Nuzzo was the one who used the word “excommunicate.” I just took it and ran with it. Anyway, here is a link with some good details:

The GOP and a new Great Schism

Enjoy some nice cocoa.

Always skeptical, never cynical
Adam Feser