Dennis and the Menace

I never thought much about Dennis Quaid, but after seeing him give an intelligent and funny interview on The Daily Show recently, I've decided he gets the prize for Man I Would Most Like to Have a Beer With. And I don't even like beer. Now I understand why Meg Ryan stuck by him during the wild-n-crazy years.

If his new political/American Idol spoof American Dreamz is as smart and charming as Quaid is, I'm dropping my Hamilton at the box office to see it.

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I enjoyed reading georgia10's Daily Kos posting on the staffing shell game going on at the White House lately. Here's an excerpt:


"Have you ever been to the rodeo? No? Neither have I. But I suspect if I did, I'd see something that would resemble this presidency. Bush clings to his cabal of advisers like a cowboy on a bucking bull. He digs his heels in, holds on to his hat, gives it a kick, and rides the bull as it bucks left and right, up and down. There's lots of commotion, lots of dust flying in the air, but in the end, when the dust clears, you're left with a sweaty, panting cowboy sitting atop of the same bull, being cheered by the damn crowd for surviving it all.

"Use whatever metaphor you want. Bull, rearrange deck chairs on the Titanic, shuffling a rigged deck of cards. The fact is that the White House 'shake-up' is aimed at providing the media and the public an illusion of change. It's a convenient way to project a sense of self-reflection (not to mention a convenient way to get Rumsfeld's name out of the headlines, right?)

"The morning after, Rove is still Bush's top advisor (only now with more free time to play dirty politics), Rumsfeld is still our incompetent Secretary of Defense, failed Michael Chertoff is still head of Homeland Security, and Alberto Gonzales is still pushing the unitary executive theory over at the Department of Justice.

"For Bush, the more things (appear) to change, the more they remain the same."