Author: KcM

Grey Poupon Economics.

Conceding defeat on the full dividend debacle (while still planning evasive maneuvers to make sure it’s as large as possible), the Congressional GOP now shift their focus to another Republican shibboleth: a capital gains cut. One way or another, it seems, the GOP are hell-bent on ensuring that the wealthiest Americans catch some kind of break from the Dubya dip.

Slider, you stink.

Apparently, Bush gave a campaign speech on the USS Abraham Lincoln yesterday, but I couldn’t hear it over all the saber-rattling. Something to do with Iraq being about September 11 or somesuch. At any rate, you have to wonder if any of the officers on the Lincoln wondered when they saw Dubya show up in aviator gear if he was coming to make up for the year he spent AWOL and on the lam from military drug tests. The election of 2004 will be won or lost on the Bush record, but nevertheless – push the Mr. Military campaign tack too far and people might just start taking a closer look at Dubya’s year-long holiday.

To Me, My X-Men.

I’m not sure how it’ll play to people who didn’t grow up on the comic, but last night’s midnight showing of X2 was much better than I had anticipated. Offhand, I can think of three setpieces (Nightcrawler at the White House, the assault on the mansion, and Magneto’s escape) that were the closest thing to fanboy pr0n I’ve seen in ages (LOTR notwithstanding), and that’s not counting all the great little flourishes and knowing winks throughout. In fact, to a person, everyone returning from X-Men (which I was lukewarm about) seemed more comfortable this time around — even Halle Berry, although she’s still miscast. And both Alan Cumming (Nightcrawler) and Brian Cox (Striker, the bad guy) fit in nicely. Sure, the film drags a bit in the last twenty-five minutes or so (as they set up X3), but overall Singer & co. hit this one out of the park…a very auspicious way to kick off the summer of Hulk and the Matrices. (Of course, the crowd helped too – when in the first five minutes Wolvie is backpacking in Canada, and the guy at the end of the row said something like, “Why doesn’t he call in Sasquatch or Puck for back-up?,” I knew I was with my people.)

Elvish Hegemon and the Subaltern Orc.

And now the terrible Orcs invade Balin’s tomb. Let’s be clear about a few things here. The Orcs are fighting a war of self-defense against the invading Fellowship. They basically busted in on the Orcs’ place here…One would think that if the Orcs were as bad as the corrupt Man-Elf coalition says, they would be a lot better at fighting. Via a friend of mine in the department, it’s the lost Fellowship of the Ring commentary track by Noam Chomsky and Howard Zinn. Touche.

Time Bandits.

With the House GOP prepared to make a deal with moderates, the White House unrolls a new pitch for the “future-embezzling” Dubya dividend debacle. Arguing that bigger is better on the assumption that there’s a 1-1 relationship between low taxes and more jobs, Dubya’s simplistic proposition has even ticked off GOP economists. (As one Republican put it when queried whether Dubya’s fuzzy math makes sense, “I suppose it matters whether you think economics matters.”) Meanwhile, Bill “kittenkiller” Frist takes the blame for congressional in-fighting on the size of the tax cut.