John Dean: “President George W. Bush’s presidency is a disaster – one that’s still unfolding. In a mid-2004 column, I argued that, at that point, Bush had already demonstrated that he possessed the least attractive and most troubling traits among those that political scientist James Dave Barber has cataloged in his study of Presidents’ personality types.

Now, in early 2006, Bush has continued to sink lower in his public approval ratings, as the result of a series of events that have sapped the public of confidence in its President, and for which he is directly responsible. This Administration goes through scandals like a compulsive eater does candy bars; the wrapper is barely off one before we’ve moved on to another.
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Currently, President Bush is busy reshuffling his staff to reinvigorate his presidency. But if Dr. Barber’s work holds true for this president — as it has for others – the hiring and firing of subordinates will not touch the core problems that have plagued Bush’s tenure.

That is because the problems belong to the President – not his staff. And they are problems that go to character, not to strategy.” (FindLaw)

Which Do You Think Can Win?: “What the Democratic hiearchy wants is an election about nothing. A giant ‘You are about to give George Bush Absolute Power for Four More Years. Are you sure? (YES) (NO)’ Believing, quite rightly that most people will click ‘No’ at this point. But beyond that, the Democratic Party is primarily a mutual career protection institution, a kind of ‘Fraternal Association of Failed Republicans of America’. This FAFRA version of the party wants the same things the Republicans want: lower taxes, regime change in Iraq, a drug company benefit funded through medicare, a bigger military, a more militarized nastier America, progressive reduction in access to abortion – just read Her Royal Clintoness’ actual pronouncements and you have a pretty good idea of what FAFRA looks like: Bush lite. Tastes late, less shilling.

This isn’t what the party base wants, but the party base is so abused that it is lining up behind it, willing to get screwed over by their leadership, because they are realizing that the alternative to Bush lite, is getting Bush whacked. Finally an election where the slogan of the Democratic hierarchy of the last 10 years: ‘Vote for us, serfs – or it’s so much the worse for you’ can actually work.” (BoP)

Grand Jury Hears Evidence Against Rove: “Just as the news broke Wednesday about Scott McClellan resigning as White House press secretary and Deputy Chief of Staff Karl Rove shedding some of his policy duties, Special Prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald met with the grand jury hearing evidence in the CIA leak case and introduced additional evidence against Rove, attorneys and other US officials close to the investigation said.

The grand jury session in federal court in Washington, DC, sources close to the case said, was the first time this year that Fitzgerald told the jurors that he would soon present them with a list of criminal charges he intends to file against Rove in hopes of having the grand jury return a multi-count indictment against Rove.” (truthout)

“The Final Girl theory emerged in 1985, when Carol Clover — a medievalist and feminist film critic — was dared by a friend to see The Texas Chainsaw Massacre. Back then, most feminist theorists loathed slasher films, and regarded them as classic examples of male misogyny. It wasn’t hard to figure out why: Thousands of young men were trooping into theaters to cheer wildly as masked psychos hacked apart screaming young women. That really didn’t look good.

But as Clover sat in the theaters, she noticed something curious. Sure, the young men would laugh and cheer as the villain hunted down his female prey. But eventually the movie would whittle down the victims to one last terrified woman — the Final Girl, as Clover called her. Suddenly, the young men in the audience would switch their allegiance — and begin cheering just as madly for the Final Girl as she attacked and killed the psycho.

This, Clover argued, was not mere garden-variety sexism. On the contrary, it was a generation of young guys who apparently identified strongly with the situation of a woman who faced agonizing peril yet came out victorious. The slasher dynamic was unprecedented in film history: ‘The idea of a female who outsmarts, much less outfights — or outgazes — her assailant (was) unthinkable,’ Clover wrote. With this new crop of slasher movies, the young men in the audience essentially became the Final Girl: exhausted, freaked out and ultimately triumphant. They weren’t just ogling the sexual violence. They were submitting to it.

The sexuality of young men, Clover concluded, is profoundly weirder than you’d imagine.

I think she’s right, and what’s more, I think her idea maps perfectly onto the success of Tomb Raider. ” (Wired via walker)