If I were smart, I would work on the novel first, and then blog. But I'm not. So I won't.

Fact of business, I haven't worked on the novel at all for the last week. I've got a decent outline for the current chapter, but I just can't push myself to get crackin'. Too busy playing games and browsing websites.

New Blogs

I keep finding interesting people writing interesting stuff by searching through the interests on my Blogger profile. To wit:

• Sam Johnson lists Public Enemy as a favorite music group. And he's a good writer. And he lists Rocky & Bullwinkle as "one of the funniest shows that ever hit television."
  
  
• Mr. Damon lists PE as a favorite band, as well as Coltrane, Tranquility Bass, and Aphex.
  
  
• Estelle lists Persepolis as a favorite book -- and hers is the first blog I'm including in a different language. Vive Charles de Gaulle!

And -- thanks to MonkeyFilter -- I've also added:

• DannyBlog: The world's first blog written by a robot!

And speaking of cool blogs, I'm way jealous of the smooth animation at the top of this blog, which you should also look at because it has David Letterman's Top 10 Complaints from George W. Bush about Fahrenheit 9/11. ("Too many of them fancy college-boy words.")

HalliBush Wars, Inc.

If I were smart, I would just ignore Bush's press conferences. It's not like the reporters ever ask anything worth asking! I mean, he goes out and issues a statement about making the new National Intelligence Director and Counter-Terrorism Center. Then look at these softball questions he gets asked!

Q: In a situation like this -- in a situation like this, where you have this new terror alert, how do you react without tipping off the terrorists and having them move to different targets, and how do you avoid turning the country into a fortress?

Q: Mr. President, the 9/11 Commission originally recommended that the National Intelligence Director be part of the executive office, part of the executive branch. Why the change?

Q: Mr. President, would you say -- can you say what you regard as the model for this National Intelligence Director? Is it the Fed, would it be the Joint Chiefs of Staff?

Yeesh! Why not just ask him if he likes fuzzy puppies? I'm glad someone had the spine to ask about Afghanistan, but there really should have been a followup to his rose-colored response. Sigh, whatever.

Meantime, What About Iraq, Mr. Kerry? Thank you, Boston Globe, for asking what no one else seems to be asking. (And thanks to the IHT for reprinting it, since I can't seem to locate the original.)

Voters understand the basic Kerry/Vietnam plot: Privileged, idealistic Yale graduate volunteers for war, serves bravely, and returns to oppose the conflict. Here's what they don't know: What lessons did Kerry take from Vietnam? How do they apply in connection to his vote authorizing Bush to invade Iraq? How do those lessons apply to resolving America's Iraq involvement?

"What I voted for was an authority for the president to go to war as a last resort if Saddam Hussein did not disarm and we needed to go to war," Kerry told CBS reporter Lesley Stahl during a "60 Minutes" interview on July 11. When Stahl followed up to ask if Kerry now thinks the Iraq war was a mistake, Kerry replied, "I think I answered your question. I think the way he went to war was a mistake."

Kerry did not answer Stahl's question. He may win the election without ever answering it. At this point it is more important to spell out his post-election Iraq policy. That is what the country cares about.

It's hard to argue with the (admittedly weak) Republican charge of "flip flopping" when Kerry refuses to make plain what (if anything) he'll do differently in office.

Meanwhile, check out Amy Goodman's grilling of Ted Koppel at the DNC.

Goodman:A study of the two weeks around Colin Powell giving his address at the U.N. for war looked at the four major nightly news casts ABC, CBS, and NBC and the PBS News Hour with Jim Lehrer. Of the 393 interviews done around war, only three were with anti-war representatives. Now this was at a time when about half of the population was opposed to the invasion wanting more inspections and diplomacy. So that did not reflect mainstream America at all.

Koppel: No, but I, you know, where is it written that it is a journalist's responsibility to go check the polls every day and see what mainstream America wants them to do?

Yeah, really. That half of the American people can go [expletive] themselves.

Random

Huzzah! Diane rocks the AlterNet! Today her article was third on the page. Woop woop!

Check out all these rare and unreleased Public Enemy mp3s. And speaking of hip-hop, don't believe the hype about the recent arrest of Kimora Lee Simmons (Russell's wife).

Shocking! (Since it's decidedly at odds with all the constant talk about our rebounding economy and the simple need for "transition" and "training"): 57% who lost full-time jobs 2001-2003 and found full-time work again are earning less. Hard to believe!

If I were smart, I would ask PETA to send me back all the money I sent them in high school. Jerkwads.

If I were smart, I wouldn't admit that I had to look up whether it's "If I was..." or "If I were..."

If Roger Clemens were smart, he'd keep his mouth shut at his kid's baseball games. You're outta here, Clemens! You don't know nothin' about no baseball anyway!

Caution: Driving the speed limit in Germany can catch you a beating.

And that's all I have to say just now.

TimeWaster™

Check out the DannyBot video. The part where the robot sings is the best.

Today I'm listening to: Polygon Window!