I, for one, have been waiting for this new installment in the legend of Spider-Man.

If you're any fan of the comics, you know that the brains over at Marvel Entertainment have re-configured the story several ways to Sunday without getting the core wrong; a nerdy kid finds a voice and a purpose courtesy of a radioactively mutated spider that, instead of conferring sickness and death on him, transfers its abilities to him. Now this nerdy kid named Parker isn't just...a nerdy kid. He's something much more and the story of Spider-Man is about how Peter deals with being more than he thought he was. Tell it in a thousand different ways, change the villians around, etc. It's still the same story. I used to hold onto the old comics like they were gold (which now that there's eBay, they could've been), and laugh at how Spidey would taunt his opponents who could literally squash him like a bug and somehow get the better of them. I used to dig how human the character ultimately was when he'd go home after battling the Green Goblin, or the Vulture, or Dr. Octopus and still have rent to pay, relationship issues, and worries about his Aunt May or his school work. I remember one story where he trashes a villian called Mr. Hyde and goes home to soak his ankle that he twisted in an earlier battle. It's that mix of sarcastic wit and the very human effort to deal with what his life is that these movies really capture well. Not to mention the special effects, which are astounding, amazing, mind-blowing. Spider-Man is an amazing piece of contemporary mythology, and it's damned fine escapist fun. So for those here that would go on about the latest antics of our so-called "Commander guy", I would say hey, let's lighten up a bit, shall we? Plunk down the ten bucks, grab your treats and enjoy the ride. And no cluck about how it's 15 minutes too long (as some reviewer in USA Today claims). It's not like you're really jonesin' to get back to reality that soon, are you?

I don't believe I could have put it any better. So I'll say this. This man Mansfield reminds me of the Renfield character in "Bram Stoker's Dracula", directed by Francis Ford Coppola. Tom Waits does a great job as the fly-eating psycho who longs for Count Dracula's bite to give him immortality, except that Mansfield is blissfully unaware that Bush and Co. have another agenda entirely and rewarding worshipful sychophants isn't part of it. After all, to keep unimited power or to at least try requires that some people are going to get sacrificed from time to time. See Scooter Libby, Don Rumsfeld, and quite possibly, Alberto Gonzales. These were all loyal and adoring servants. Still when it came time for someone to be the scapegoat, they were axed or will be soon. Mansfield may be soon finding himself passed over for the reward of worshipping Bush, just as Renfield did when he cried out:

"Master! I have worshipped you! You promised me immortality. But you give it to the pretty one!"

Poor Renfield.

Poor Mansfield.

Just another thought: aspiring to unlimited power and actually having it are two entirely different things. Beyond the patholigical corruption at the heart of this exercise is an equally pathological stupidity and incompetence. Which means exactly this: they might have gotten their wish if not for the American people's insistence on the rule of law, expressed as the Democratic-led Congress' reinvigorated oversight, and the colossal, incomprehensible DUMB-ASSEDNESS of this administration. As Gary Kamiya put it a while ago, these people aren't smart enough to take out the trash, let alone rule the world. This is an administration of Pinkys with no Brain. That in itself gives me hope. Now Prof. Mansfield may not like this state of affairs but that's America. If it's tyranny he wants, there are plenty of places he can go to find just that.

"We've turned a corner"

"The insurgency is in its last throes."

"'05 was a watershed year"

My God in heaven.

I firmly believe that the Bushies inhabit the same reality that Paris Hilton does. You know, the one where you can do anything you want and there's no accountability, no consequence, and no punishment. For those of you who may have missed it, Paris Hilton is going to JAIL for violating her probation or some such thing. She aint even going to some country club jail. She's going to L.A. County JAIL. She can't believe the indignity, the horror, the cruelty of it all. Meanwhile the Voodoo Priest shows up in Iraq, nearly gets his ass blown up, and still manages to growl platitudes that everybody knows aren't true, like the ones listed above. It probably goes without saying that the administration thoroughly believes its own bullshit by now in the face of the obvious. Just as Paris believes her impending stay in the pokey is unjust, horrible, and...just plain wrong. So there.

Feel like the world is going mad and you along with it?

Listen to the Bush people, and then watch "Access Hollywood".

Connect the dots.