House of Card

So Bush's Chief of Staff Andrew Card resigned today. Can somebody tell me what this guy did anyways? You never heard him talk. Most Chief of Staffs are much more visible, aren't they? The only thing I ever remember him being personally involved in was interrupting Bush while he was reading My Pet Goat on September 11.

Karl Rove was supposedly the Deputy Chief of Staff, but you certainly heard a lot more about him.

That seems to be the way the Bush Administration works.

• Andrew Card was Chief of Staff, but Karl Rove is really Chief of Staff


• Bush is President, but Cheney is really President.


• Rumsfeld is Secretary of Defense, but the "brains" (term used VERY loosely) behind the Iraq war was really his deputy Paul Wolfowitz.

It's kinda like the Wizard of Oz, huh. Pay no attention to that man behind the curtain.

Blogging the Oscars

Here's a post of random thoughts while watching the Oscars.

Going into it, here are my thoughts. With two little kids, I don't get out to the movies as often as I used to, although this year, I have seen a decent number of the films nominated. Walk the Line was the best movie I've seen this year, so will root for both Reese Witherspoon and Joaquin Phoenix, both of whom were awesome. I saw Brokeback Mountain, and thought it was good, but far from great. I really didn't buy the relationships in the film at all. I saw Munich last night, and thought it was good. I saw Crash several months ago, and thought it was pretty good. Certainly better than expected for a Sandra Bullock movie, but I was surprised when I heard it was nominated for Best Picture. I don't know about that. Saw Junebug earlier this week, thought it was a good film, and that Amy Adams was much more worthy of Best Supporting Actress than Michelle Williams in Brokeback.

• Hope the show starts soon. I really can't take this mindless interviewing of celebs on the red carpet by dopes.


• They aren't gay cowboys, they were hearding sheep. They were fucking shepherds.


• Cute intro with all the ex-hosts.


• This may be a long night for Jon Stewart.


• Nicole Kidman is hot.


• How old is Dolly Parton? Should I insert a plastic surgury joke here, or say she still looks amazing.


• Funniest moment so far: Will Ferrell and Steve Carell decked out in bad makeup to introduce the makeup category. Runner up: Ben Stiller in green suit sketch.


• How come Don Knotts wasn't included in the sequence of stars that died this year. Sure he was mainly a television guy, but there were the classics The Reluctant Astronaut and The Incredible Mr. Limpet. Certainly should have been a mention.


• OK, too many lame awards eating up air time. I'm not going to make it to the big ones.

Postscript. I'm really tired of Billy Crystal, so Jon Stewart was a good change, but I think he's going to be a one-termer like Letterman. He seemed to fall kind of flat. Glad Brokeback Mountain didn't win Best Picture. It just wasn't that good. But Crash? Glad to see Reese Witherspoon won Best Actress. Must see Capote soon.

21st century smokers

This is bound to piss of some friends, but I was walking into the CVS today, and had to pass by the gang of CVS workers on their smoking break. What dregs of society. Banning smoking in public (a very positive development, libertarian leanings be dambed) has really created a new underclass. Or exposed one, at least. Look at the group of people smoking outside of Wal-Mart or whatever business you walk into. For the most part they are your typical lowlives. Anybody still smoking on a daily basis in 2006, really can't claim the title of "sharpest tool in the shed."

Now, I won't go any farther into the reasons why smoking is stupid. This blog isn't about being preachy. But if you are one of the group out there on "smoking break," every half hour and you aren't a welfare mother, you might want to think about how you are perceived these days.

Now to my several smoker friends, who hopefully aren't reading this. I'll give you somewhat of a pass, because most of you only smoke while you are drinking, which is a slight mitigating factor. But hey, it's 2006. You don't look like James Dean anymore, you look like a busboy at Denny's, and if you keep it up, you are going to sound like Johnny Most.

Honey I squished the picture

No this post isn't about Howard Dean, although there will be plenty of time to comment on that latest attempt at self-destruction by the Democrats. This gripe is about wide-screen TVs, and how people watch regular formatted TV stretched-to-fit a wide screen. It doesn't seem to bother anyone but me.

You go into a bar, and unless it's a sporting event, the TV is always stretch-to-fit. They'll have the news, or an old movie on, and everyone looks like Oomp-Loompas. And nobody is bothered by it. It's the main reason I haven't bought a widescreen TV yet.

Hey, I'm a little anal, but I refuse to even watch the news on certain channels in the winter, because they squish the picture to put the no school announcements at the bottom of the screen. Would much rather they chop off Ed Harding's neck, than to make his head any fatter.

Isn't there anyone else bothered by watching TV like this?

Dumbfucks

This blog isn't meant to be overtly political, but when you are talking about things that suck, how can you resist posting this. Just came at me today by email. Not sure of the source, but it's brilliant.

Bush conjures up Beavis

Yesterday, a reporter asked Bush whether he has seen Brokeback Mountain. The response was classic Bush. In the middle of it, I swear, he laughted just like Beavis. Wish I knew how to actually modify the video to insert Beavis's laugh.

Check out the video at I-Film.