Out of Town
I'm gone until Media Monday. Former guest posters should feel free to post anything they like over the weekend to keep the place hopping. But if there's nothing new here, how about visit the excellent blogs of a few friends of Article 19?

Doug's Talk Talk Talk Talk Talk Myself to Death
Joefitness.blogspot.com
www.emichaelharrington.com

Have a great weekend and cheer on the Red Sox..4 games to go. If they win any 3, they will take first place from the Yanks. Win only 2 and they could easily be out of the playoffs altogether. Win only 1 and they most surely will be sitting the postseason out.

How else can they screw up?
Couldn't happen to a nicer bunch of (straight) guys...the Washington Post on the Grand Old Party:

On almost every front, Republicans see trouble. Bush is at the low point of his presidency, with Iraq, hurricane relief, rising gasoline prices and another Supreme Court vacancy all problems to be solved. Congressional Republicans have seen their approval ratings slide throughout the spring and summer; a Washington Post-ABC News poll in August found that just 37 percent of Americans approve of the way Congress is doing its job, the lowest rating in eight years.

On the ethics front, Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist (R-Tenn.) is under investigation for selling stock in his family's medical business just before the price fell sharply. The probe of well-connected lobbyist Jack Abramoff, a former close associate of DeLay, threatens to create even more troubles for Republicans. Finally, the special counsel investigation into whether White House senior adviser Karl Rove or others in the administration broke the law by leaking the name of the CIA's Valerie Plame is nearing a conclusion.

Iraq is completely falling apart, and the American economy is showing signs of cracking. Meanwhile, every Republican leader is engaged in personal political damage control. Good work, guys.

Dreier Shut Out
24 hours ago we were all hearing that Congressman David Dreier would be Delay's "temporary" replacement as Majority leader. Now, Roy Blunt has suddenly stepped in instead. Speculation is rampant that the reason for this switcheroo is Dreier's well-known (even if not to him) homosexuality.

5 to go
Red Sox are still tied with the Yanks and the Indians, and Boston really is on TV tonight--ESPN. By Monday, it will all be over, except maybe a play-in game. Personally, I'm hoping it's all decided in the Sox's favor by the time the last game comes around. I don't think Schilling's up for that weight.

More Bob Dylan Talk
I thought last night's Part II of the Scorsese documentary was better than the first. Really remarkable footage. A few thoughts:

1. Al Kooper's description of how he met Mike Bloomfield at the Rolling Stone session, and how he snuck his way in as organist on that track was hilarious and maybe my favorite part of the whole film. And his admission that he was fearful for his own safety during the subsequent touring was a telling instruction about just how much animosity existed among Dylan's "fans" at that time.

2. Media reporters today can't hold a candle to reporters of the mid-60s in terms of asking the stupidest imaginable questions (though Charlie Rose gave it a run in the post doc interview). The press conferences Dylan had to endure, somewhat like the famous Beatles Q & A sessions but Dylan had to do it alone, would be enough to make anyone insane. My favorite was when one asked him how many of the other singers out there, if he knew, were interested in conveying a message. Dylan said about 136. What else can you say? So, the enterprising reporter, not knowing or caring that he was being made fun of, followed up to nail Dylan down. "so you're saying 'about 136' or 'exactly 136?'" The nonsense was unbelievable.

3. He was so young. If you saw last night's chapter, you heard Scorsese himself read from the text of Dylan's "acceptance" speech for an award he was given by the Emergency Civil Liberties Union. The whole thing is even more surprising than the parts that were read. Naturally, the group - which should have known better - was offended. Even more interesting though, scroll down and read his follow-up reply, addressing the concerns of the organization. He was 22 years old, tormented, uncomfortable, driven. After watching the whole thing, and thinking about how much his song-writing has changed, I wonder if he didn't ultimately sacrifice some of his poetic intensity for the chance to live somewhat more comfortably with the rest of us. Only a rarely focused soul--maybe Allen Ginsburg?--could maintain that kind of intensity for a lifetime, and doubtful he could have under the public pressures Dylan faced. And all Bob wanted was a band to help soften the blow.

4. Folk fans are really rabid. Some of it was like attack of the norman rockwell painting. Very bizarre. And it was kind of scary to watch an embarassed Seeger clearly lie through his teeth to explain away his angry reaction at Newport as being merely over bad sound quality. Every other interviewed eyewitness to those events contradicted him and painted him as wildly angry over the music.

5. There are any number of stanzas I could point to, but today my head is swimming with this:

Through the mad mystic hammering of the wild ripping hail
The sky cracked its poems in naked wonder
That the clinging of the church bells blew far into the breeze
Leaving only bells of lightning and its thunder
Striking for the gentle, striking for the kind
Striking for the guardians and protectors of the mind
An' the unpawned painter behind beyond his rightful time
An' we gazed upon the chimes of freedom flashing.

and this:

Ain't it just like the night to play tricks when you're tryin' to be so quiet?
We sit here stranded, though we're all doin' our best to deny it
And Louise holds a handful of rain, temptin' you to defy it

What kind of 23-year-old mind envisions sky-cracked poems of church bells, singing their own beatitudes of justice and freedom, through the clanging of "wild ripping hail"? I know, it's easy to make fun of him now, and I'm tempted. But any writer with the catalog of songs he has to his credit is deserving of better. I'll write thousands of entries here before I'm done, and who knows maybe a bushel of songs if I'm lucky, but will never manage a truth so beautifully said as hundreds of his.

I had an important professor who taught me that a composer can be genius with just one moment. (Yes, I remember lots of them: McCoy Tyner's, Stevie Wonder's, Mozart's Dissonant Quartet opening, the crazy E-flats in Beethoven's F Major scherzo, If I Fell intro, the first 3 seconds of Tropicalia 2, Willie Nelson copying Paul Simon copying Bach copying someone nobody remembers, Ornette...everywhere) One perfect moment/chord/turn of phrase/well-chosen verb in just the right place. That's how hard it can be to do, and how great it is when it's accomplished. Dylan did it time after time.

Anti-war Wizard
Thanks to a reader for emailing this speech made at the recent war protest rally in DC. I have to admit I'm mostly with Kos on this one - mass protests like this have become so self-parodying as to be pretty inconsequential (I hope I'm wrong about that). But this must have been a real highlight, and perhaps the makings of a new leader in the liberal ranks. Etan Thomas played college basketball at Syracuse, and now for the Washington Wizards in the NBA. His fabulous speech proposed taking Republican leader/blowhards and dropping them off in "the 'hood" to start their lives over.

I’d employ them with jobs with little security, let them know how it feels to be an employee at will, able to be fired at the drop of a hat. I’d take away their opportunities, then try their children as adults, sending their 13-year-old babies to life in prison. I’d sell them dreams of hopelessness while spoon-feeding their young with a daily dose of inferior education. I’d tell them no child shall be left behind, then take more money out of their schools, tell them to show and prove themselves on standardized exams testing their knowledge on things that they haven’t been taught, and then I’d call them inferior.

I’d soak into their interior notions of endless possibilities. I’d paint pictures of assisted productivity if they only agreed to be all they can be, dress them up with fatigues and boots with promises of pots of gold at the end of rainbows, free education to waste terrain on those who finish their bid. Then I’d close the lid on that barrel of fool’s gold by starting a war, sending their children into the midst of a hostile situation, and while they're worried about their babies being murdered and slain in foreign lands, I’d grace them with the pain of being sick and unable to get medicine.

But, Etan goes pretty easy on them really. He doesn't send even 1 devastating hurricane to wash away what little they would have to their name. Read the whole thing. It's great.

WOOHOO!
Link

The second-ranking Republican in the U.S. House of Representatives,
Tom DeLay, said on Wednesday he would step aside temporarily from his leadership post following an indictment on a campaign-finance charge.

A grand jury in Travis County, Texas, indicted DeLay on a single felony conspiracy charge related to fund-raising activities by a political action committee he created, CNN and the Austin American-Statesman newspaper reported.

Let's Play Hockey
Sports Illustrated ranks the Nashville Predators 5th in the entire league going into this season. They have a chance to be good, but that's a bit of pressure, no? Just squeaked into the playoffs (meaning top 16 in the NHL) last season. Still...woohoo!

Supreme Court Cases
The list is out of cases to be heard in the new term, which begins Monday. Included are 4 first amendment cases, a search-and-seizure case, and--no kidding--Anna Nicole Smith's bid to receive a share of her late husband's estate. No word on whether her actual dopey lawyer, the improbably named Howard Stern who starred in her reality show, will actually make the argument.

Via ScotusBlog's Blog Roundup, At ElectionLaw Blog, Rick Hasen believes the court's decision in 2 campaign-finance-related cases will go a long way toward informing us of Justice Roberts' true beliefs about precedent. The First Amendment Center discusses the 4 First Amendment cases on the bill.

Consuelo Callahan?
ACSBlog has the latest rumor of an impending Supreme Court nominee announcement. Of course, last time all the rumors were dead wrong.

Red Sox Win Game 1--UPDATED, Sorry
Doubleheader with Toronto today and the Sox won the first 3-1. Timlin didn't even give up his obligatory 9th-inning run to make it more difficult. So, Boston is tied with the Yankees again (and with Cleveland for the wild card), with 6 games to go, the last 3 head-to-head. Schilling goes tonight in game 2, on ESPN. [UPDATE: Sorry, the Sox are on ESPN tomorrow night, Wednesday, not tonight.]

I believe that puts Schilling on pace to be the starter in the last game of the season. Wells and Wakefield will be the other starters against NY.

It's a shame that, of the White Sox, Red Sox, Yankees, and Indians, one of those will have to miss the playoffs. Unless it's the Yankees.

Bush Speech--Not
If you, like me, have had people sending you an "advance copy" of a speech Bush is giving today, and been shocked at its contents, you're not surprised to know that it's a joke. It's a speech Jimmy Carter gave as President. With Bush now telling us all to stop driving, that's the joke. Where did it come from? ABCNews' The Note, a daily update with a sense of humor but nonetheless a serious news source. But they gave no indication it was a joke. Jon at AmericaBLOG is not amused.

To me the funny part is the continuing Bush-Cheney flip-flopping on whether conservation really is important, a shift the Note tries to chuckle at here. The only problem, if there is one, is that it fooled some that excerpted their favorite parts and sent them around--I got a chain of those--leaving out the tell-tale phrases ("there is a malaise afflicting America.") that would have tipped off those of us over 30.

But beyond that, it's amazing to reread that Carter speech, no doubt a political mistake of the highest order, but a remarkable set of things for a President to say. Too bad the very forceful plan for energy independence was not implemented in full, and so did not work. We still face that problem, but not so much a "crisis in confidence." Unless you count this as such a beginning.

MEDIA MONDAY
What have you been listening to, reading and watching?

Cross-Blog Question
Doug, how was Franz Ferdinand? Were you pleased with your decision?

Scorsese/Dylan Review
A compelling piece, that will make you want to watch tonight's No Direction Home even more, in the Washington Post.

Perhaps only a director of Scorsese's caliber could have produced not just a fascinating portrait of Dylan's meteoric rise but a vivid social history and an obliquely witty examination of the packaging and marketing of the folk craze in the 1960s (some scenes seem plucked directly from Christopher Guest's satire "A Mighty Wind").

We'll miss him byyyy that much
Don Adams, who gave me endless childhood laughs as Maxwell Smart, agent 86, has died at the age of, maybe, 82.

Weekend Box Office
1. Flight Plan
2. Corpse Bride
3. Just Like Heaven
4. Roll Bounce
5. The Exorcism of Emily Rose

Let's all go and see Nicholas Cage's Lord of War (coming in at #6). I own stock in Lions Gate Films.

Scorsese's Dylan Film starts tonight on PBS
The long-awaited (by me anyway) Bob Dylan documentary made by Martin Scorsese is a 2-parter that starts tonight on PBS. Part 2 is tomorrow. Check your local listings - it's 8 pm here in Nashville. Scorsese already made one of the best rock documentaries ever, "The Last Waltz." "No Direction Home: Bob Dylan" promises to be less contemporaneous footage and more archive, but should be fabulous. It replays at midnight here if you miss it the first time around.

Unfortunate Developments
Consider me among the anti-science crowd now.

Women are increasingly seeking inappropriate IVF treatment because they do not have the time or inclination for a sex life and want to "diarise" their busy lives.

The cost of a single IVF treatment is at least £2,500
Wealthy career women in their 30s and early 40s, some of whom have given up regular sex altogether, are turning to "medicalised conception" - despite being fertile and long before they have exhausted the possibility of a natural conception.

Dr. Tim Evans says what I have long thought:

"They are testing, testing, testing when they should just have sex."

Indeed. Please, less testing and more sex.

Credit where due?
There are plenty of reasons to criticize the President for his new hurricane efforts. As Joe notes at AmericaBlog, the White House is still operating under PR priorities, choosing not to travel to San Antonio because it's "too sunny" there. But honestly, whatever the motivations, the level of engagement Bush is showing here is exactly what we should expect from a President when we are faced with a storm that represents yet another historic threat. It should occupy all of his time and schedule, and his presence should help ensure that leaders in charge of the response are doing their jobs.

And, don't you think seeing him trying to finally claim the protection of Americans as his responsibility and priority makes his response to Katrina that much more shameful. He's at the Colorado command center; he's visiting devastated areas. Can you believe he (like Cheney, and Rice, and Chertoff) ho-hummed his way through a category 4/5 threat to one of our nation's biggest cities, and most important ports? So, I give him some credit for demonstrating the proper attention. But it highlights his absence through the last storm all that much more.

Great(er) Society Spending
Bush has surpassed LBJ as the leader in total discretionary spending growth. During Clinton's first term, spending went down 8%. In his second term, it increased a modest 8%. Bush now clocks in at 35% spending growth.

Howard Dean says it best: you can't trust Republicans with your money.

Republican War on Poor, Day 14,725
Until I have time to write this afternoon, read what Kevin has to say (and follow the links) about the GOP's exploitation of hurricanes to justify a return to their real passion: cutting from the role of government any program that would help the poor.

We know they don't really care about making government smaller. Delay says it's as small as it can be, and the President wants to balloon spending. They just don't want to spend it on poor people. Or people who are soon-to-be poor.

If Pirates Ruled
Via BoingBoing, today's Worth photoshopping contest is "If Pirates Ruled." Some of the entries are really funny. Scroll through and check it out. My personal favorite is Christ Pirate.

Just saying...
I suppose it could be a coincidence that 2 of the 4 strongest recorded hurricanes in history have come this year.

Lovely Rita [UPDATED]
It would seem that nothing can come between us and another disastrous storm. And in keeping with the tradition of this blog to be relentlessly pessimistic, may I inquire discreetly: is the hazardous future of climate change now? Instead of tip-toeing toward the monumental change that global warming promises in our way of life, have we jumped in? When was the last time 2 category 4 hurricanes landed in the same month, let alone the same year? [UPDATE: Rita has been upgraded to a category 5. Egad.] And what if 2 more hit our shores before the season is up? What if the same number, or more, pound us next year? How many will it take to collectively agree that life on our coasts has changed irrevocably, no longer habitable 12 months of the year?

Those of us that believe that climate change is responsible for the increase in the number and strength of hurricanes must eventually ponder the next logical step. It will not be a one-year phenomenon. I have always assumed that great changes will eventually be necessary to deal with chronically severe weather and rising ocean levels, but with an emphasis on "eventually." What if that future is now? I know, I know, it seems a needlessly panicky, dire question, with only the 2 sisters, Rita and Katrina. We could nearly make it, with a sister or 2, but what if October brings 2 more? Shouldn't that tell us something? How would that change the equation of a long-range rebuilding strategy?

If only her eye would give us a wink, instead of the bludgeoning that seems sure to come. Thoughts and best wishes to those on the Texas coast. I wouldn't want to meet 'er.