Note that the tagline said that it was the crappiest commercial ever, not worst. It is crappy. If it's cute, or endearing, it is because the artwork is bad and the animation is bad. It is not harmful to the soul like the swift boat ads. But man, it is the goofiest thing I've seen in a while. I'm also not sure that "the Raz" realizes that this ad looks goofy. Which is why it's funny. It's not evil, true. But really. I mean, look at the guy's feet. His "angry face". The flowers and other things that randomly appear throughout the ad. It is not good. It is funny, goofy, and weird, maybe it's cute. but it's not good.

Nix Check Cashing is mentioned in the Beastie Boys song "High Plains Drifter":

"...I'm phony paper passing

at Nick's (Nix) Check Cashing"

If they're going to allocate money for that, they should put some money back into New York City to guard Paul's Boutique against terrorist attack.

When people are looking for conspiracies, they always ask "who benefits?". Just because someone benefits, does not imply a conspiracy. Consider that had things gone as our administration expected, the oil companies and the defense industry would still benefit. Haliburton would get a juicy contract (which would not be scrutinized at all after a swift victory). Defense contractors would ride a wave of pro-military sentiment, and would be able to observe their products in action. They would also use the successful prosecution of the war as an argument for continued spending on conventional weapons systems. Finally, oil companies would have access to Iraq, which would be very lucrative in the long term and the short term.

In this case, I think truth is stranger than fiction. In my opinion, it was a perfect storm of incompetence, greed, fear, and ideological certainty that brought us to where we are today. An incurious and ill-qualified president formed a policy based on the fantastic assumptions of the neo-conservatives and Cheney's desire to control Middle Eastern oil, and sold it to a citizenry that was still scared silly from 9/11.

Even if one hates Bush, the idea of a Machiavellean puppeteer is somewhat more appealing than the idea that nobody is pulling the strings, or if they are, they really have no idea what they're doing. The only thing our administration seems concerned about is making sure this whole sordid mess looks good, or plausibly not bad, to the voters. I look at how bad things are getting in Iraq, and I wish we had a plan; even some dark conspiracy would be better then the unbridled and growing chaos that is occuring now.

Three questions:

How did that guy get within a hundred feet of a public school without out his ankle bracelet going off?

Why did the part where the widow starts dancing on the grave (ala Tawny Kitaen) end up on the cutting room floor?

When we get around to building patriotism re-education camps, do you think "America - We Stand As One" will beat "God Bless the USA" by Lee Greenwood as the official song?

Rumsfeld says "Oh, I don't know...You know, I thought about that last night, and, just musing over the words, the phrase, and what constitutes it ... It clearly is being stimulated by people who would like to have what could be characterized as a civil war and win it, but I'm not going to be the one to decide if, when or at all."

His answer has three parts: "Oh, I don't know." is the first, so I guess we can take it that he either doesn't know or can't decide. The second part is where he tells us that he was pondering what exactly the phrase "civil war" means. To most people, a civil war is a large scale conflict waged within the boundaries of a single country or nation, by factions or groups native to that nation; this is clearly not succint enough for Rumsfeld. The third part refers to "It", which is something that is not a civil war. This thing is being "stimulated" by people who clearly would like to transform it into a civil war, and subsequently win it. If this were to happen, Rumsfeld is "...not going to be the one to decide..." to what extent, if any, this thing that they do is or is not a civil war.

So I guess he's saying this: "I don't know if it's a civil war, the definition of a civil war is very complex, there is something in Iraq that some people would like to turn into a civil war, but if and when it does become a civil war, I won't be the one to name it as such."

Quite simple, really.

What an outstanding article. It's been a while since I've read anything like this. First rate journalism.

I know that we're all supposed to be nervous and worried and scared now that humorless baby boomers are in charge and we've been attacked by terrorists...but do you think we could have some small part of our sense of humor back, perhaps?

Please tell me that the Mentos and Coke mixture did not use both "exits".

Having teried this trick, and seeing how quickly it produces the gas that causes the soda explosion, I'd NEVER try that in my stomach. He's lucky he didn't eat the Mentos first and chug the Diet Coke second.

She didn;t actually expect to get called on the idiotic thing she said on Fox News. I mean, how often does that happen?