EDITOR'S DESK Does nobody want to CONTEXTUALISE the fact that LIBBY FLIPPED ON HIS BOSS last week, who then went out drinking and shooting his hunting buddies...? Nice to know Cheney's running this war. … [Read more...]

COULD LISTEN TO HIM ALL DAY Between Charlie Rose quizzing Diane Keaton about Warren Beatty (how long have they NOT been a couple? and would Rose EVER bring up Keaton with Beatty?) to John Tierney in today's NYT you'd think we'd never even gone through the ERA fight, or just spent some quality time … [Read more...]

KIDS THESE DAYS Have a lot more time for this typa thing: bloggregate, which poses a curious distinction from the "pros" on Pazz and Jop. (Here's a cool movie list.) EMAIL EAVESDROP Well when I was 15 I snookered my Mom into letting me spend my couple hundred dollars of savings on a new stereo, … [Read more...]

YEAR OF NO CONCENSUS Just out, OUTRAGED that Chris Brokaw got only TWO ballots, and it's a third my fault. Lots to sniff here... Don't forget Filmoculous ("let's get lost...") TOOLS: AJAX Newsalloy SHIELD Didn't you sense Forest Whitaker ITCHING to give Chicklis a stick of gum last week? … [Read more...]

LOBBYIST REFORMATION John Ashcroft Has a Come to Jesus Moment WORLD ON A STRING DARK SIDE OF THE RAINBOW When I was a distracted campus layabout, we had more creative ideas than this, which has faded into the collective unconscious ether like that magic marker CD trick. Some of these were … [Read more...]

From "Goodbye Terry Gross, we never knew ye—on liberal media denial" by Joe Bageant, in the Online Journal: As Helen Caldicott recently put it: “What’s to become of us? Ask any experienced mental health practitioner what happens to a person who constructs and tries to maintain a life based on denial … [Read more...]

CLICK THE FALSIE: Did you know Sylvie Simmons has a whole page of interviews posted, and claims metal men are more respectful of women then "garden-variety" rockers? Wasn't that the joke in BILL AND TED'S EXCELLENT ADVENTURE...? KPFA has a pretty ROBUST podcast page Is this really Sylvie … [Read more...]

REVIEWS OF THE MONTH From Ed Condran in Giantmag.com (Beckensale issue, page 98): PLEDGE THIS! (2005) It's the female ANIMAL HOUSE starring Paris Hilton. I'm the professor of sexology and I'm obsessed with paris. She did very well considering that she's not an actor and not of this planet. I think … [Read more...]

YET URGED W. TO "STAY TOUGH" ON NSA WIRETAPPING... David Weigel on the Patriot Act (Reason): ...no senator who voted against the PATRIOT Act in 2001 or subsequently voted to amend it has ever lost a race; five congressmen who voted to reject or amend the act have lost their seats, but those losses … [Read more...]

When Tierney and Brooks replaced Safire, I made some crack about how that would be bad for the wordmeister's ego. Now it's not so funny: in today's column, Brooks misrepresents a half-century of cultural politics so lamely you'd think you were reading a Murdoch rag: But by the late 1960's, … [Read more...]

As a longtime ER fanatic, I come to praise its latest themes: Maura Tierney is getting BETTER, and their abortion episode last week, replete with "fundamentalists" (which they slyly equated with Catholicism), pushed a lot of over-familiar buttons in ingenious ways. John Leguizamo's so good he plays … [Read more...]

Ken Auletta on Judy Miller? Did you gulp hard after you bumped into "(A disclosure: My wife, a literary agent, represents both Keller and Miller.)" So did every other self-respecting journalist. Seth Mnookin's piece in Vanity Fair was superior. PREDICTION OF THE YEAR: Scooter Libby Gets Pardoned … [Read more...]

NOT ENOUGH TCHAIKOVSKY THE MEME OF FOUR: Four jobs you've had in your life: web site producer (x3), author, teacher, grocery sacker (Aspen 1981) Four movies you could watch over and over: WAKING LIFE (Linklater), GODFATHER 2 (Coppola), DRESSED TO KILL (Eddie Izzard), Let it Be (Lindsay-Hogg) Four … [Read more...]

Journalism Interns at a School of Rock: "Casting calls are going out on college campuses late next month for aspiring Rolling Stone writers who would also look good on MTV and want to become famous, or almost famous..." The New York Times, which knew about the secret wiretaps for more than a year, … [Read more...]

BOOK OF THE WEEK from SWEDEN, recently featured at Liverpool's Beatles Days, not nearly obsessive enough... TOP TEN PODCASTS Beatlegs John Winn KCRW's Left, Right and Center le show Harry Shearer Media Matters from beautiful downtown Champagne Urbana Democracy Now Amy Goodman Soundcheck … [Read more...]