Tuesday, February 12, 2002

Kevin Phillips, another prominent conservative and Clinton-hater, has joined Arianna Huffington in realizing that today's corporate corruption and political parties' — predominantly the Republicans', but plenty of Democrats' — blatant, unabashed practice of letting fatcat donors dictate policy is a cancer on the Republic that goes way beyond conservative versus liberal. In "The Company Presidency" (link from Cursor.org), Phillips explains the unspinnable, ironclad ties between Enron and the Bush family, makes quietly devastating observations like, "The office of the U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of Texas, which includes Houston, has had to recuse itself en masse," and shows that comparisons to Teapot Dome are not exaggerated.  Looks like his May 2002 book, Wealth and Democracy: A Political History of the American Rich, will be a blockbuster even for critics who try to dismiss Frank Bruni's George W. Bush bio Ambling Into History or Michael Moore's screed Stupid White Men. 6:28:44 PM    commentplace ()

Ain't It Cool News (the classic and still invaluable movie news & review site and quasi-Weblog, as long as you have Pop-Up Stopper) says Tom Cruise has optioned the best novel I've read these six months (already heralded in my "Unpaid plugs" section), Glen David Gold's magical 1920s thriller Carter Beats the Devil.  Actually, I think Cruise (a.) can act and (b.) is at least starting to act his age instead of coasting on the Boyish Good Looks Grin, so he could be great as peaking vaudeville showman Charles Carter.  But Penelope is way, way wrong for the female lead. But you think Tom Cruise and James Bond movies are the extent of my film criticism?  I hadn't visited lately but rejoice that the Web's greatest action hero, Eskimo Bob, is back on form — after the brilliant minimalism of early episodes like "We Found a Stick," "Let's Go Club a Seal," and the French foreign films, Tomas and Alec Guinan's Arctic adventurer seemed to lose his way in the overblown, Heaven's Gate- or Waterworld-esque Epic 26, yet Episode 29's soaring, orchestral version of the laconic icon's theme heralds a musical, leprechaun-bashing triumph.  I must send my bride an Eskimo Bob Flash Valentine! 5:44:28 PM    commentplace ()