The Lady is a Tramp

The dog days of summer are here. I am taking a long weekend hiatus from this blog so I can post more goodies for my fellow castaways when I return.

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Blue Plate Special

This morning I received an email forward from my uncle with a link to the commercial "Why You Should Vote Republican." As an avowed supporter of public transparency, I am skeptical of any movie produced by any business entity with the name SyntheticHuman Pictures. In response, I hit the reply all button with a clip from the film Thank You for Smoking that, I guess, gives a clue for the inducement to create such a flick. I posted it below. No phonies here, if we aren't all in agreement among today's bargains at http://www.slickdeals.net/ are the Craftsman 100ft. All Rubber Hose and the Nyko PlayStation 3 Zero Wireless Controller. It vibrates too.

What's Wrong with this Picture? Part Two

Even after Donald Trump's feud with Rosie O'Donnell that played over the airwaves in 2007, I missed out on Donald Trump's Celebrity Apprentice. After looking at the distortion in Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee's face this week, I remember that I had caught a glimpse of the same thing on The Apprentice this past March. The Ivanka Trump part does not show up in this video, but check out Stephen Baldwin's face when Trace Adkins and Piers Morgan chose teammates:

What's Wrong with this Picture?

If you caught Congresswoman Sheila Jackson Lee D-TX speaking on the floor of the House of Representatives yesterday, you should have noticed that her face looked markedly different. I have posted a video of her in the same lime green dress suit and cream blouse. Below that one, is a video with a side angle shot of her speaking on the House floor today about Juneteenth.

Thesis

Speaking of 1963, this clip was produced by filmmaker Martin Scorsese as a course requirement for his master's degree at New York University's School of Film. What's a Nice Girl Like You Doing in a Place Like This is a short that depicts a writer's uneasy formality with life that teeters on an incredulous departure from reality at the film's end. Having only mulled on Scorsese's The Aviator, a biopic film that begins at Howard Hughes's childhood, I admired how he encapsulated, against a sixties backdrop, a man's eventual disassociation from the here and now in the film's ten minutes. Airline mogul and Hollywood socialite Hughes, played by Leonardo Di Caprio, grappled with an obsessive compulsive disorder that travelled with him from childhood, in his business ventures and with each of trysts with screen actresses. What's a Nice Girl Like You Doing in a Place Like This shows the opposite. What does a man do when the cookie-cutter story book life gets the better of him?

Alien Jurisdiction

Today, United Nations' International Court of Justice heard emergency oral arguments over the case of Jose Medellin who is set for execution in the State of Texas on August 4th. At issue, is the United States' adherence to a 2004 interpretation of the 1963 Vienna Convention requiring that a Mexican national be notified of his right to contact the Mexican consulate before facing capital punishment charges. Personally, I believe that even in spite of the procedural defects in Medellin's case, that it is a travesty of justice to interfere with a sovereign's right to administer punishment to an irrefutable murderer and rapist. However in times such as this, Jose Medellin's case does merit the public attention because legal issues involved raise questions of human rights law and what force is attributed to international treaties made with foreign governments. The United Nations' world courts and other governing bodies are important courts of last resort for many countries where the judicial or political system is bereft of justice. Such as in the case of the murder of Benazir Bhutto, Pakistani officials have requested a United Nation's investigation into the suspected murderer, millitant commander Baitullah Mehsud's ties to the Pakistani government and al-Qaeda. Any sovereign where there is a military rule of law, seems to deserve a review of its internal processes even if the only relief that can be granted is a review by the UN Security Council. The United States has given representative party Medellin and his cohorts plenty of bites at the apple.

Office Depot

A District Judge for the District of the District of Columbia exempted the Office of Admistration from having to produce White House emails from the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA). Although prior precedent has determined this type of correspondence to be public, the memorandum opinion based the denial of access to the emails on the specific component of the Executive Office of the President and not on the content of the information requested.

Happy Father's Day!

Happy Father's Day to all Dad's out there!

Public Policy Argument

Who needs Freudian enthusiast film director Roman Polanski when there is Judge Roman Kozinski? Judge Kozinski is the chief federal judge on the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals bench that went ahead and recused himself from a pornography case for posting human pornography and animal beastiality on his personal website that is no longer functional. Somehow, the difference between the two Romans, Polanski and Judge Kozinkski, lead to the differentiation between definitions of endorse and indorse many times used interchangeably as the word endorse. A person can endorse or approve of a candidate, but that definition is distinct from the action of indorsing, or inscribing your own name to become the payee of a check. Conflating the two endorsement meanings yet again, Ponzi schemes are named for the Italian born Charles Ponzi method of circumventing the law with shoddy high risk business practices by bringing in more investors to line his fleet of early investors' pockets. In particular, the International Reply Coupon gimmick allowed Charles Ponzi's Security Exchange Company investors and customers to cash in on international arbitrage by buying postage overseas and redeeming them for higher postal rates in the United States. In modern history, founder of EarthLink Reed Slatkin's scheme netted him millions dollars stored in a Zurich, Switzerland bank from over 800 investors. The fradulent investment scheme that raised money early on from celebrities and movie producers also netted the Scientologist minister fourteen years in federal prison. CNBC's American Greed series showcased a Ponzi scheme orchestrated by an art dealer that passed off obviously worthless paintings and sculptures as multimillion dollar works of art. Worse than a 3:30 appointment with Donald Rumsfeld, Ponzi schemes begin with a venture into the legal morass of the unknown to becomming patently offensive when the arrangement impedes on traditional law and our common sensibilities. Leading us back to Judge Roman Kozinkski's public endorsement for lewd art, when is enough, enough already?

Quote of the Day for the Week of Friday the Thirteenth

"The best way out is always through."
Robert Frost (1874 - 1963)

Anticipating my court date to challenge the citation awarded to me by the Immigration and Customs Enforcement police, I could not help but notice their horse and carriage stationed a five minute walk from where I live. The Pony Express held camp in the valet parking lot in front of the Galleria's Saks Fifth Avenue on Wednesday this week. I kept my distance from the locus of Department of Homeland Security trucks on the opposite side of the street under the shade of oak trees. As the sun's heat penetrated my skin standing on the thouroughfare leaving my pores to gush my frustration to the surface, it became apparent to my eyes that I was in the compass of some bubbling undercurrent. After waiting to catch a glimpse of the foreign visitors, I proceeded back home to find the summons for the ticket waiting for me back home.

Moonlight Sonata

Showcasing at the Democratic National Convention this summer is the Crap Cannon or the Brown Note, an acoustic weapon capable of making a person defecate involutarily. There will also be a sneak preview of Raytheon's Active Denial System (ADS). This is not the first time that military contractors have displayed their wares at political events. There were repeated reports of the New York Police Department's (NYPD) use of the Long Range Acoustic Device (LRAD) weapon at the Republican National Convention that took place in New York in 2004. Like the Brown Note, the LRAD works on an acoustic frequency and is designed to deafen a target by creating a ringing in the ears. Save the Tchaicovsky's Overture of 1812, these weapons are nonlethal and are to be used as crowd barriers to prevent fatalities. The Discovery Channel's team of experts at MythBusters dispute whether the Brown Note can even achieve the involuntary bowel spasms leaving the rest of us laymen to conjecture on the entire field of the acoustic weaponry.

Short Circuit

A Russian Yellow Pages ad sales representative had a complete and total meltdown last week when a co-worker made an off-color jab at his performance sales. The co-worker joked that his officemate would be spending his vacation in the Krym instead of in Thailand. This particular shot shows the end of the Ad rep's fit of rage in living color. Unlike the first widely circulated video, this video depicts the man's complete and total agony as he succeeds in destroying everything in sight from office computers to cubical dividers and halogen lamps. The first video gives the aerial ceiling shot of the entire office passively watching the entire ordeal to the song "Bitter Sweet Symphony" by The Verve.

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Publisher's Clearinghouse Sweepstakes

Unfortunately Countrywide Financial Corp. and the sub-prime mortgage crisis can get the better of us and the best of us. Ed McMahon's recent foreclosure of his home in Bel Air, Los Angeles put a name and a face on the problematic 2.5% rise or total one million homes in mortgage foreclosure since the 2% figure at the end of 2007. For states like California, blame the problem on increased housing costs and risky mortgage loans made to real estate investors. In Ed McMahon's case, it might be easier to lay the blame on neighbor Britney Spear's paparazzi.

Road to Damascus

The Road to Damascus is the story of St. Paul's conversion to Christianity in Biblical Syria. Barack Obama's road through Damascus with Catholic Syrian born and convicted criminal Antonin Rezko serving as his longtime political supporter is a bone of contention for Obama's stance on political independence. Although the McCain-Feingold Campaign Finance law has already trailblazed in these efforts, Obama vows to restrict donations from soft money contributions such as political action committees (PACS) and lobbyists. This does not stop Obama from allowing the well-connected volunteer to engage in a land sale or host a million dollar fundraiser or two like the one Peter Paul embroiled himself in a legal battle for Hillary Clinton. Antonin Rezko co-chaired a "mega-million" fundraiser for President George W. Bush in 2003. Like the crumbling interiors of his South Side Chicago properties, Rezko has been a "fixture" in Chicago politics since the city's first African-American Mayor Harold Washington even befriending Muhammad Ali. Facing a guilty verdict for funnelling political kickbacks through his businesses to Chicago Governor Rod Blagojevich, knighted and dubbed a "slum lord" by Hillary Clinton, Antonin Rezko leaves Obama anxious enough to call a meeting with the editorial board of the Chicago Tribune regarding their seventeen-year association. Obama has known Antonin Rezko since Obama's job interview with Rezko's Rezmar Inc. during his days as a 2L at Harvard Law School. Rezko has been Obama's ace ever since that time raising at least $250,000 in campaign funds over the course of Obama's mounting professional and political career. During the Rezko trial, a deal where Obama bought his 1.65 million dollar house and campaign headquarters $300,000 under market value adjacent to Antonin and Rita Rezko's property was a source of media inquiry. Right before the Rezko's federal indictment surfaced, Obama sold the adjacent one-sixth vacant lot to Rita Rezko calling the move a "mistake." Obama has been magnanimous enough to donate the fruits of his friendship and business relationship with the federally indicted Rezko to charity. However the question remains, do contributions that don't make it to the offering plate count?

Viva São Paulo!

While I just signed up to be a Digital Delegate for the 2008 Republican National Convention this September in Minneapolis-St. Paul, I think Democrats are still licking wounds inflicted over another Paul. Former friend of 42nd President Bill Clinton and his wife and waning contendor for 44th President, Hillary Clinton, Peter Paul is living in a villa in Brazil trying to recover two million dollars reportedly stolen from him by Hillary Clinton's 2000 campaign for United States Senator. Heading the 1984 United States' Bicentennial Celebration under his belt, Peter Paul claimed that he cut a business deal with outgoing Bill Clinton but got the shakedown and the switch to the ambitious First Lady. Paul filed a federal lawsuit and while he sojourned in Brazil got picked up by Interpol and spent time in a prison in the Amazon jungle while his case proceeded in the United States without him. He lost, but the Federal Election Committee attributed the fault Hillary Clinton's campaign staffers earning her a spot on Judicial Watch's Ten Most Corrupt Politician List and her own tribute: Hillary Watch 2006. This last Saturday, the Democratic National Committee (DNC) decided to discount by one half delegates won in the violative Michigan and Florida primaries held on January 29th this year a week before February 5th's Super Tuesday. In the case of the State of Florida, the DNC overrode a bill passed by the Florida legislature to give voters in that state more influence in choosing the Presidential nominee. Even though Michigan and Florida could have waited a week to have all delegates counted and garner sufficient attention from the remaining candidates for the Democratic nomination, the DNC's chose to halve the concentration of so-called swing-state delegates crucial in the 2000 election and focus on smaller primaries and caucuses like South Carolina and Nevada that have less big money influence due to less voters. Senators like Diane Feinstein D-CA and Lamar Alexander R-TN are moving a bill to allow a regional rotational system for party primaries starting 2012. Recalling a phone call made to Alexander's Senate office in Washington D.C., I was told to contact staff member Qu'ran Folsom in Memphis. Unfortunately Supreme Court precedent like Bush v. Gore did not motivate DNC party heads to consider the four million electorate in Florida alone. Hopefully, no other party loyals are languishing in third world prison.

See Also:

Peter Paul's Blog

Artificial Intelligence

Scientists predict that in thirty years school children will be able to receive brain downloads in a 'matrix-style' format. Learning vocabulary in the class room setting will be supplanted by wireless technology. At the same time, scientists are experimenting with the idea that highly intelligent humans will be unable to distinguish between computer synthesized virtual graphics based on the Turing Test that disregards the innate human aptitude for lying. Are you smarter than a fifth grader? TV Guide wins.