RIP Molly Ivins

That's sad. She was good.

Sea Venture

(c2e)

Illustration by William Hutchinson from Sea Venture a juvenile novel (what the kids call chapter books today;) by Willoughby Patton (1959 Longmans, Green, and Co.)

The Eyes of the Fleet

(click to embiggun)

Top: Broadside of the 38-gun frigate HMS Shannon.

Bottom: Broadside of the razee frigate HMS Saturn. Originally laid down as a 74-gun third rate ship of the line, in 1813 the Saturn was cut down to a 50-gun razee frigate to deal with the large French and American frigates such as the 44-gun USS Constitution.

Frigates were the smallest ships (three masted square rigged vessels) in the Royal Navy. They were popularly referred to as the "Eyes of the Fleet" for their scouting and reconnaissance capabilities, but were still save, ships of the line, the most powerful batteries afloat. The fledgling United States Navy relied entirely upon frigates and smaller vessels until after the War of 1812 when the USS Independence, 90-guns, was launched late in 1814 as the first US ship of the line.

Daily Drew

From an NBC press release:

NEW YORK January 30, 2007 NBC's "Saturday Night Live" welcomes Drew Barrymore back to the program on February 3 with musical guest Lily Allen and, fresh from his SAG Award victory, Oscar nominee Forest Whitaker with country star Keith Urban on February 10.

SNL's youngest host in its over 30-year history, Drew Barrymore first hosted on November 20, 1982 while starring in Steven Spielberg's blockbuster "E.T." This is her fifth time hosting the program.

That makes Drew the youngest host ever at 7 in 1982 and only the second female to host five times (Candace Bergen is the other). Will we be seeing a Five-Timers Club sketch?

Hey remember her last cameo on SNL?

Thought you might.

Not feeling the Barbaro love

Sorry. Never felt it. Never will. It's was a horse goddamnit. A horse that had a better health care plan than 98% of all Americans. A horse goddamnit -- and as all top thoroughbreds are -- a genetic freak of a horse. So take your mutant money machine to the glue factory and pick up your last check. Just shut up about the goddamned horse.

Cheney is the new Baghdad Bob

Blunderbussing

Remember Baghdad Bob? Remember the unbelievable whoppers he told with a straight face? Remember the time he shot a guy in the face and then had the guy who he shot apologize to him but wouldn't apologize himself? Wait that was Cheney. It's just so hard to tell the difference when Cheney says stuff like "You heard my speech, when Don [Rumsfeld] retired. I think he's done a superb job."

Daily Drew

tags technorati : Drew Barrymore

The More You Know

Did you know that the Hanafi School of Islamic law is considered the most liberal of the four major interpretations of Islamic law?

Another Bush Disaster

No, not the surge, not the handling of Katrina, not ignoring a report that concluded "Bin Laden intends to attack US targets with airplanes", nope, not even the right Bush!

Jeb and his policies destruction of Florida's housing market and school system -- not too mention some good old fashioned slush money laundered through overpaid contracts.

What the "Surge" is really about

A Sully reader nails it:

If we leave before he's (Bush) out of office, the whole of this sorry affair is his. He has no one to blame for his failures. If somebody else comes in and, miracle of miracles, pulls something off, Bush will act as if he loosened the jar that somebody else finally opened. If the next (probably Democratic) administration pulls out, Bush will have succeeded in wiping his sticky booger on them, and his water carriers will take delight in trying to spread the meme that Democrats lost the war.

Leaving this mess for the next administration is Dubya's plan.

New to the Blogroll

Gilbert "The Hibachi" Arenas is the only interesting thing* about the NBA anymore, and he writes his own blog on NBA.com. The NBA has become the sort of dull, soulless, faceless league the NFL is in danger of becoming. The NFL has one advantage over the NBA though. It's core product, the game, is not stagnant and boring to watch. So while I have no love whatsoever for David Stern's dull league, I do like the "bits of flare" that pop-up when a talent and character like Gilbert Arenas shows up. Someone get him and Clinton Portis to do a talkshow together.

*Mark Cuban's ownership of a team excepted.

via Deadspin

tags technorati : Gilbert Arenas NBA deadspin

Daily Drew

Well the Music and Lyrics publicity machine is revved up to 95%. It's nice to see Drew all over the TV (and every other medium). My Google and Yahoo! Alerts for Drew are piling in at over 10 per service per day (lots of redundacy tho...). Anyway here's today's roundup:

---

BARRYMORE PENS NEW TUNE FOR JENNY LEWIS

DREW BARRYMORE became so inspired while portraying a songwriter in new romantic comedy MUSIC + LYRICS, she penned a tune for her favourite singer. The actress is hoping to present the song to indie pop singer JENNY LEWIS. The actress says, "I was listening to this album by Jenny Lewis called RABBIT FUR COAT; it was just my favourite album of 2006. "I was obsessed with it and she made me think I could write a song. It's probably really terrible. "I actually know her, so I should show it to her and see what she thinks."

Lewis is also a member of Rilo Kiley and a sometime actress including a role in the great movie Pleasantville.

---

Hugh Grant and Drew Barrymore to Help Judge Nearly 400 Aspiring Songwriters

Drew and Hugh will be the final judges in something called the "Your Music, Your Lyrics" contest in conjunction with VH1. I'm not exactly sure how "having Hugh Grant and Drew Barrymore as judges, makes this user-generated contest a world-class event." as Mark McIntire, Senior Vice President, Integrated Marketing, VH1 would have you believe. Still "the lucky winning songwriter will be flown to Los Angeles for the red carpet premiere of "Music and Lyrics" and will also have their song professionally recorded." So I assume that means you would get to meet Drew. Entry is closed all ready btw, so don't bother.

---

And finally my favorite story of the day:

Drew Barrymore's Topshop Shopping Spree

Oh, if only we could have been a fly on the clothing racks when one of our favorite stars hit one of our favorite stores. While some celebrities demand that stores be closed just for their private shopping pleasure, Drew Barrymore simply arrived at the flagship Oxford Street Topshop store in London with a small group of pals towards the end of the day on Tuesday.

Ok yeah, pretty boring, but after the nude Irish romp stories I had to post this slightly unflattering picture:

Mostly because it makes think about Drew in her underwear, and I enjoy that.

tags technorati : Drew Barrymore

China Bans Year of the Pig?

Chinese TV Network Bans Pig Ads During Year of Pig Celebrations Due to Muslim Sensitivity

Considering that only Instapundit and the Faux News Channel have picked this up from a WSJ report, I smell bullshit.

Hahaha

Gossip Columnist Reveals All Her Sources On Way To Post

Outgoing Roll Call gossip Mary Ann Akers is off to a great new start as the new WashingtonPost.com gossip. Her farewell to Roll Call e-mail charmingly revealed all of her sources, because she put them in the CC spot instead of the BCC spot. (Note to aspiring gossip columnists: BCC means Blind Carbon Copy, which means everybody can’t see everybody else who gets the e-mail.)

tags technorati : politics WaPo

Look over there.

U.S. launches new airstrike in Somalia

Maybe all the saber rattling directed towards Iran is being done to obfuscate the war that we are all ready starting in Somalia.

Well Bush has never been charged with that

Israeli President Charged With Rape

Say what you want about Dubya's cokin' and boozin', he's never been charged with rape, so he's one up on Israel's President. (Note that the Presidency in Israel is a ceremonial position with little actual power.)

Shocked, SHOCKED, I say

Ivana: Donald Trump-Rosie spat is for publicity

I am shocked. I thought it was all a coincidence that the feud started at the same time as the new season of Trump's show. I am absolutely shocked that Trump and Rosie would make asses out of themselves to get publicity in every tabloid and , trash TV, and "lite-news" show. (I'm looking at you Today Show.)

Daily Drew

From Sunday's upcoming Parade magazine


via (and more Drew pics from Parade at) Peoria Pundit

Lieberman: The New McCarthy

The toxicity of Joe Lieberman's treason accusations

Money quote:

Lieberman, of course, spent several years warning Americans not to criticize their Leader with regard to the War. Just two weeks ago, Lieberman went on Meet the Press and prompted an angry outburst from Chuck Hagel after Lieberman sat there smugly accusing Hagel and anyone else who opposes the Glorious Surge of wanting the U.S. to lose in Iraq. In the same appearance, Lieberman also looked straight into the camera and said that the U.S. was "attacked on 9/11 by the same enemy that we’re fighting in Iraq today" -- a claim so transparently false that even the President long ago abandoned it.

But yesterday, Lieberman reached what might be a new low. During the confirmation hearings of Gen. David Petraeus, Lieberman provoked this truly reprehensible exchange with Gen. Petraeus, as summarized by The Washington Post's Thomas Ricks:

Sen. Joseph I. Lieberman (I-Conn.) asked Army Lt. Gen. David H . Petraeus during his confirmation hearing yesterday if Senate resolutions condemning White House Iraq policy "would give the enemy some comfort."

Petraeus agreed they would, saying, "That's correct, sir."

Using the terms to" give comfort" and the "enemy" in the same phrase has no conceivable objective other than to invoke accusations of treason. The Constitution's definition of "treason" is exactly that -- giving "Aid and Comfort" to the enemy. For Lieberman to purposely track the Constitution's treason language when describing opponents of the "surge" plan -- and to invite the new Iraq War Commander to agree with his accusation -- reveals so inescapably what Lieberman is. That's just the basest and most despicable smear one can imagine.

As usual Greenwald's analysis is spot on. Read the rest.

Jim Hightower

Flash by Jim Hightower

edit: The flash was autoloading so click the link instead.

Andy Griffith Wants the Terrorists to Win

Andy Griffith explains due process in a way the twelve-year Opie old can understand. That, unfortunately, is at too high a level for the current administration.

via boingboing

gobears

Classic putziness

Blue Texan, Instapundit's constant fisker, catches him in a classic act of Putz's* brand of (self-described) "libertarian non-partisan" Putziness.

Because some asshole mattress dealer in Wisconsin is a Democratic spokesman speaking on the party platform obviously.

Daily Drew

Drew, Hugh match like 'Music and Lyrics'

"Drew sent me a letter during my great scandal of 1995," Grant says, referring to his arrest in Los Angeles for picking up prostitute Divine Brown in his car. "I had two incredibly supportive letters from famous people. One was from Drew. The other was from Francis Ford Coppola. Both apologizing for the press coverage and being supportive. So I've always loved Drew for that."

Barrymore shrieks. "I forgot that! I'm so not Hollywood Bob that way or would send anyone I didn't know a letter. But I thought you were so charming. I wrote you a letter and you wrote me one back, and it hung on my fridge for a long time."

More publicity for "Music and Lyrics". I saw the two together on Extra last night. Probably be a lot of Daily Drew's coming up. BTW that article is 859 words... in USA Today! I'm pretty sure USA Today covered 9/11 with five pictures, two hundred words and an infographic.

On torture

Poker? Damn near killed her.

NSFW language

Here have some joy too

Steve Goodman

On September 20, 1984, Goodman died at University of Washington Hospital in Seattle, Washington , the leukemia from which he had anointed himself with the tongue-in-cheek nickname "Cool Hand Leuk" (others included "Chicago Shorty" and "The Little Prince") finally taking his life. He was only 36. Eleven days later, the Chicago Cubs, the baseball team Goodman rooted for and wrote two songs about, played their first playoff game since 1945. Goodman's ashes are buried under home plate at Wrigley Field.

They didn't make the playoffs in his lifetime. That's about the saddest thing that I know.

Super Cheese

Live this down Barry

With all the attempts to manufacture any sort of scandal around Barrack Hussein Obama, why didn't they just get his yearbook? A politician named Barry? And he admitted using cocaine?

I'll be goddamned... bitch set him up

via Wonkette

A good question

From the comments

anon e. mouse said...

Don't you know that in the ROyal Navy, you must always choose the lesser of two weevils?

Should there be a sequel to the movie, who should play Sophie and who should play Diana?

Now that's a damn fine question, and one that my kneejerk response of Drew Barrymore won't work for;)

For the raven haired long necked beauty Diana I have a quick and good answer:
Jennifer Connelly

When I read the comment, she was the first actress that came to mind. When I went to look for a picture of her I clicked through to imdb and the first photo that came up was her at the Master and Commander premiere. "Strange coincidence" think I, but attending premieres is part of being a movie star. Then I remembered she's all ready married to Maturin! Well Paul Bettany, at least.

Now for Sophie, you've got a real poser there. 20 years ago this would've been an easy one. Emma Thompson all day long. Hot as she still is, she's a little old to play Sophie these days -- Mother Williams perhaps, but not Sophie.

Now a days I suppose you have to look to the Kate's (Winslet and Beckinsale) but neither of those strike me as Sophie. Sophie's character has a icy matronly grace (in a good way) that I don't pick up from either of these two. Both of them are too "girl next door type" to be Sophie -- too accessible. So I'm gonna go with a far more "out there" choice. Sophie is supposed to be one of the finest looking women in England, so let's use one of the finest looking women from South Africa:
Charlize Theron

Beyond beautiful, a bit icy, pure sex, can act, and all ready has a funny accent;)

New to the Blogroll

Peoria Pundit

A good blog keeping up with the happenings of my birthplace and former hometown... where I was westside up on the bluff;)

Strangely I found the place googling drew barrymore net worth. I was doing so because she doesn't appear on this list of the richest women in entertainment. I found that strange because a "paltry" $45 million for Renee Zellweger made 20th on the list. Drew's gotta be worth $45 million... doesn't she? According to annanova she made $15 million a movie in 2004 and she has produced and/or distributed her last several movies including the Charlie's Angels movies which did over $500 million in worldwide box office.

Habeas Corpus Restoration Act of 2006

Leahy and Spector introduce bill to reinstate habaes corpus.

Following up on their earlier efforts to prevent the stripping of fundamental legal protections in the Military Commissions Act, Senators Arlen Specter (R-Pa.) and Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.) have introduced the Habeas Corpus Restoration Act of 2006.

The bill would restore basic legal and human rights for 12 million lawful permanent residents in the United States that were rolled back as a result of the passage of the Military Commissions Act of 2006. Below is Sen. Leahy’s statement on the introduction of the bill, as well as his co-sponsorship of the Effective Terrorists Prosecution Act of 2006.

Daily Drew (double dip)

Dylan, Springsteen, Kristopherson, Minelli, Jones, Raitt, Rivers, Colvin, Barrymore...

Wait what? One of these things is not like the other, but that's the lineup for the Lucky You soundtrack. Drew has song listed as "The Cold Hart Truth", but seeing as how the George Jones track is "Choices" from the album The Cold Hard Truth and that the second cut is the title track, I'm guessing she's singing "The Cold Hard Truth".

---

¿Bruce Willis?

Jan 19: It seems that Hollywood beauty Drew Barrymore has had enough of toyboys after splitting from Strokes rocker Fabrizio Moretti who is five years younger than her, for now the actress seems to be eyeing Bruce Willis.

Barrymore was seen lapping up on Bruce Willis post-Golden Globes.

The actress was locking lips with Bruce Willis at the party Prince threw at the Beverly Wilshire, socialiteslife.com reported.

I certainly don't fault Bruce, but Drew c'mon please make it stop. Save him for Lindsay when she gets out of rehab.

Obama's in

What world do you live in?

Jack Kingston (R-GA) on the new five day congressional work week:
"Keeping us up here eats away at families," said Rep. Jack Kingston (R-Ga.), who typically flies home on Thursdays and returns to Washington on Tuesdays. "Marriages suffer. The Democrats could care less about families -- that's what this says."

Jack Kingston on why he opposes raising the minimum wage:

"If the Democrat Party truly wanted to take on poverty, they would have to say what is the relationship between marriage and the poverty level and between hours worked and the poverty level, because the truth of the matter is, if people end poverty, many of them would marry and work 40 hours a week."

But Jack working a full week destroys marriages. You just told us that.

Hypocrite.

Daily Drew

Drew on the red carpet at the 2007 Golden Globes

Shiny

Will Beckham's Help the MLS?

A friend of mine asked me this earlier today. I watch a lot of soccer, so he wanted my take on Becks in the MLS. Here's what I just wrote him:

Well if history is any guide, yes. The last time that soccer was as big or bigger than it is now in the US was the mid to late 70's and it got that way because the New York Cosmos imported a washed up striker from Brazil by the name of Pele. Even in his late 30's he was so much better than everyone else a even soccer newb could see it and people turned out to watch.

Before Pele started with the Cosmos their average attendance was under 5,000. When Pele started with the Cosmos in 1975, their average attendace was about 15,000. By 1977 when he left their average attendance was over 35,000 and continued to climb all the way up to mid 40's before the league fell apart from over-expansion in the mid 80's.

Other teams imported stars of a lesser nature (notably the Los Angeles Aztecs who brought in Dutch legend Johann Cryuff and nearly doubled their attendance for that season -- though that was admittedly only from 8 to 15 thousand in the Rose Bowl) and had similar success. All that turned into modest TV success for the NASL with several teams getting local TV contracts and the leagues playoffs being shown nationally.

--End summation of wikipedia articles on NASL--

Also don't forget the er... let's call it the MJ effect. The Chicago Bulls in their early/mid 90's heyday played in front of sellout crowds everywhere because people bought tickets to see MJ even if their team sucked.

Now I think soccer is poised to do the same, but unlike the previous effort most of the MLS plays in soccer dedicated stadiums of appropriate size. Sure Cryuff doubled the Aztecs attendance but 15,000 in a 92,000 seat stadium still looks bad on TV. Even Pele playing in front of 35,000 was doing so in 80,000 seat Giants Stadium. If Beckham comes to Chicago to play against the Fire, they will sell out the 20,000 seat Toyota Stadium (which they do occasionally anyway), but I don't think even Beckham could sell out the Fire's old stadium... 60,000 seat Soldier Field.

Plus Beckham, while the biggest draw, is not the MLS' only draw anymore. Freddy Adu, Landon Donavan, and DeMarcus Beasley have all been on the cover of Sports Illustrated, and while outside of soccer they don't yet have much name/face recognition maybe they can ride Beckham's coat tails. Donavan all ready does national sports commercials (Right Guard I think), and Freddy Adu has contracts with Nike (who doesn't) and ?Pepsi? (or Coke, can't remember which, but it was big deal when he signed it). Unfortunately for the MLS Adu is set to move to Manchester United after the next MLS season. BTW that will be Adu's 4th season in the MLS and the one in which he turns 18 years old.

The general level of soccer has gone up in the US as well. The United States has been as high as eighth in the FIFA World Rankings, though after our poor '06 World Cup (0-2-1) we're now down to 30th. Still using mostly homegrown MLS talent we are competitive at the international level. Yes our /best/ players still play in Europe, but a large majority either started in or still play in the MLS -- the exception is goal keepers all three keepers on the US squad play in the English Premiere League, including Tim Howard who plays for Beckham's old squad Man U.

Daily Drew

Probably because they are fair and balanced.

"My Fox guys, I love every single one of them."
--Condoleezza Rice on Fox News

When is Fox News gonna have to register as a PAC?

The View from (above and to the right of) My Desk

Again, visit Project Hamad for more information on this hospital worker arrested in Pakistan in his own home and now held at Guantanamo Bay as an enemy combatant.

Adel Hamad's Gitmo detention

Project Hamad

Close it down.

Daily Drew

Drew & Fab Call It Quits

Actress Drew Barrymore may be on the cover of the latest Harper's Bazaar gushing about her boyfriend of five years, Fabrizio Moretti, 26, but Us Weekly has learned that the 31-year-old actress has ended her relationship with the Strokes drummer.

“Drew said they needed time off,” a source close to the actress tells Us.

Confirms a Moretti pal, “Fab is now living back in his old apartment.”

Hey Drew my number is 815-7... aw, to hell with it this is the 21st century just look up mcsey on the Tubes.



Fabrizio was in that shot also, but much, it seems, like Drew, I've cut him out the picture. Click for full shot. Also, does she not remind you a bit of Wynona Ryder in that picture? Maybe Drew will take up with Dave Pirner next.

The Capture of Puerto Bello

(Click to embiggun)

The Capture of the Puerto Bello in 1739 during the "War of Jenkins Ear". The war reflected growing trade differences between Spain and Great Britain in the Americas, and the first major British success was the seizure of Puerto Bello by forces under Admiral Vernon.

Text and scan taken from Patrick O'Brian's Navy ed. Richard O'Neill

The View from My Desk

Will not make gerbil joke

Gere dances with Indian sex workers in AIDS fight

MUMBAI - Hollywood star Richard Gere cheered on thousands of Indian prostitutes dancing to raunchy Bollywood songs on Wednesday and urged them to refuse sex without condoms to prevent the spread of HIV/AIDS.

"No condom, no sex. No condom, no sex. No condom, no sex," Gere hollered into a microphone as about 10,000 prostitutes gathered at a dusty Mumbai fairground joined him in chorus.

More on Jobs' keynote and stock prices

Narnia over at Websides has some other charts that show RIM and Palm's slide during and after the keynote and also notes a corresponding jump in Yahoo's stock when the IMAP push mail to the iPhone was announced.

Macworld Expo Keynote in a graphic

Apple announced two products today one bleh and one hawesome. I'll let the market decide which is which...

Wait it all ready did.

Daily Drew (double dip)

From the assplosion of Drew related Yahoo and Google alerts that have been deluging my inboxen, its obvious that publicity for something is ramping up. Oh gee you mean she has two movies coming out in the next two months? I'm shocked. Anyway...

Drew can't do diets.

American actress Drew Barrymore accepts that her intermittent weight is due to her incapability to stick to a constant diet

The 31-year-old Charlie's Angels actress admits she knows that she would have a better body if she keeps an eye on what she eats.

"I am so appallingly bad and erratic. I know that I'd have a better body and feel better if I did dieting more consistently."

Barrymore desperate to work with Borat Sacha Baron Cohen

Drew Barrymore is desperate to work with “Borat” star Sacha Baron Cohen because she's always been attracted to strange men.

The “Charlie's Angels” actress, who was in a relationship with “The Strokes” drummer Fabrizio Moretti since 2002, insists the Hollywood star had some unusual pin-ups as a teenager.

"I like smart, weird, funny and sharp.The guys I had crushes on growing up were Ted Koppel and David Letterman", says Barrymore.

Music and Lyrics with Drew and Hugh Grant opens Feb. 14 2007 (aww Valentine's Day)
Lucky You with Drew and Eric (The Incredible Hulk) Bana opens March 16, 2007

Interestingly Lucky You finished production first and has had its release pushed back twice. Not a good sign.

Hey Sam, how do you feel about Internet hype?

Found here. via boingboing

Oops.

Heh, Edmonton lost in overtime anyway.

Daily Drew

So where are you guys?

HowManyOfMe.com

There are: 3 people with my name in the U.S.A. How many have your name?

I like

Daily Drew

BARRYMORE REVEALS SECRET TO STROKES RELATIONSHIP

Don't take your relationship so damned seriously all the time. "Laugh more! Laugh your ass off!"

Virgil Goode's office classily vandalized

Found here.

Mel Gibson?

"You just have to read what's in the Israeli press. The Jewish community is divided but there is so much pressure being channeled from the New York money people to the office seekers."

Nope. Wesley Clark. Apparently the coming war with Iran is the fault of the rich Jews in New York. DAMN YOU ROTHSCHILD!

TWAJS.

A reporter gets it right

Administration Official: Troop Escalation ‘More Of A Political Decision Than A Military One

(Jim) MIKLASZEWSKI: Good evening, Brian. Administration officials told us today that President Bush has now all but decided to surge those additional troops into Baghdad to try to control over the violence there and only then could they accelerate the turnover of territory to Iraqi security forces. Fact is they’re not up to the task yet. The plan would also throw more U.S. money at Iraq for reconstruction and a jobs program. Interestingly enough, one administration official admitted to us today that this surge option is more of a political decision than a military one because the American people have run out of patience and President Bush is running out of time to achieve some kind of success in Iraq. While this plan will clearly draw some stiff opposition on Capitol Hill, the president is expected to announce it a week from today.

Virgil Goode pwned

But It's Thomas Jefferson's Koran!

Rep.-elect Keith Ellison, the first Muslim elected to Congress, found himself under attack last month when he announced he'd take his oath of office on the Koran -- especially from Virginia Rep. Virgil Goode, who called it a threat to American values.

Yet the holy book at tomorrow's ceremony has an unassailably all-American provenance. We've learned that the new congressman -- in a savvy bit of political symbolism -- will hold the personal copy once owned by Thomas Jefferson.

You may remember Virgil Goode's bigoted tirade against Rep. Keith Ellison using the Koran at his Congressional swearing in. He's just been made to look more foolish. Ellison will be using unserious terrorist loving Thomas Jefferson's copy of the Koran.

Note to Goode... sit in the back of Congress and keep your mouth shut, you'll get pwned far less often this way.

Daily Drew

A Lucky You (warning link goes to horrific Flash site) promo photo...

Wii Girls