In case you haven’t seen it yet, Crooks and Liars has the video of Michael Moore’s appearance on Leno from earlier this week, with some great interview and a clip from the film.
Meanwhile, Daily Kos had a diary a few days ago about the more than 15,000 nurses from across the country who have mobilized […]

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Okay, since I always like to follow the lead of the RubberNun, I took my best shot at recreating myself as a Simpsons character (courtesy of the avatar builder at the Simpsons Movie site).
Of course, being the multi-faceted Gemini Rising type that I am, I had to do four different versions.

Figure A: The current version, […]

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POLITICS: The Washington Post brings us the fascinating story of how Cheney’s quest to undermine environmental science for political purposes led to a humongous pile of rotting dead fish. “… Because of Cheney’s intervention, the government reversed itself and let the water flow in time to save the 2002 growing season, declaring that there was […]

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Via Tom Tomorrow, Digby once again displays her talent for perfectly articulating what the rest of us are thinking:
I know that I sound like a character in an Oliver Stone movie, (”one pristine bullet? That dog don’t hunt!” ) but I have never been sanguine about the fact that all the big money boyz and […]

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You may have noticed things have been a little slow around the OcPot this week, because I spent the past weekend visiting my parents in scenic Peoria, Illinois. I’m now paying the usual price for taking a couple of days off, with everything I have to do piled up to twice its normal height. It’ll […]

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July 15 is “the day the music dies” — the date that Internet radio will be essentially destroyed by new draconic royalty fees approved by the Copyright Royalties Board if Congress doesn’t take action to fix the situation.
The exorbitant new rates force stations to pay a fixed fee for every song they play, regardless of […]

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Time to haul out a real classic.
It’s hard to explain to someone who wasn’t around, and tuned in to the new music scene, just how electrifying this video was in the first few years of the 1980s, when you’d catch it on the scattershot music video shows that existed before MTV. I still think of […]

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From an essay entitled “The Middle of Nowhere,” by Edward N. Luttwak, which appears in the July 2007 issue of Harper’s, reprinted there from the May issue of Prospect:
Hardliners keep suggesting that with a bit of well-aimed violence (”the Arabs only understand force”) compliance will be obtained. Yet what happens every time is an increase […]

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Oh, my heavens. How old do you think the world’s oldest cat might be?
Try thirty-seven years. That’s right, a black cat named (ironically) Baby was born in 1970, according to his owners, and he will be recognized by Cat Fancy magazine in its August issue.
You heard me.
For those feeling as skeptical as I […]

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I don’t know why I get such a kick out of these little faux mod-psychedelic numbers from Bewitched, but I loved them as a kid and have enjoyed seeing them again on YouTube. Probably it’s because Liz is clearly having such a scenery-chewing great time performing them. And because they send the camp factor of […]

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POLITICS: The Senate Judiciary committee has voted 13-3 to authorize subpoenas for documents related to the NSA warrantless surveillance program. That includes three Republicans on the committee voting in favor of the subpeonas: Sens. Arlen Specter (R-PA), Orrin Hatch (R-UT), and Chuck Grassley (R-IA).

Poland “stuns” other members of the European Union by demanding that the […]

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George W. Bush’s approval rating (26%) is now officially lower than Jimmy Carter’s was at his nadir of popularity (28%), according to Newsweek.
What do you think are the odds that in a couple of decades GWB will be highly regarded as a diplomat, author, nobel peace prize winner, and humanitarian?
Other fun facts:
The war in […]

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According to Outpost Gallifrey, The Sci-Fi channel has announced that Season Three of Doctor Who will begin its US premiere run on July 6th.
The Runaway Bride debuts at 8pm and is immediately followed by Smith and Jones at 9.30pm. Both programmes are repeated starting at 11.30pm.
The premieres come after a day of Doctor Who on […]

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A British advertising watchdog has slapped down the British Egg Information Service’s attempt to bring back the famous “Go To Work on an Egg” ads from the 50s, on the grounds that they don’t promote a properly balanced breakfast.
Something like the dawning American realization that the egg is indeed edible, but maybe not so […]

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