Dairy Queen; Dairy Tyranny

Frank

Senator Patrick Leahy recently held a hearing of the Senate Agriculture Committee to address the fact that national policy overlooks small farms. The sad thing is: NO MEMBERS OF THE COMMITTEE SHOWED!!!! Except for Leahy himself of course. Luckily some heroes do exist - Senator Bernie Sanders and Congressman Peter Welch joined up to show some muscle on the issue and listen to comments as well. The problem is farmers need more and perhaps better federal aid if the government wishes to have a stronghold on the farm community big or small, whether it be Vermont or any other state for that matter.

Milk does a body good, got milk? Sound familiar? Those are a couple crafty slogans wittily thought up by some smart-ass genius with a milk mustache sold to corporate dairy that can afford to have perhaps even a gang of milk-mustachioed knaves brain-storming around the clock obsolete catch phrases to help push gallons upon gallons of the pearly white cookie partner. And yet the poor proletariat of the good 'ol VT farm community is having a hard enough time staying open for business let alone expand their marketing campaigns. It's no big secret (or scheme for that matter) that national policy favors big business and Vermont dairy farms take it in the "you know where" causing them to go under. The Farm Bill, which is updated every five years, is what spearheads federal policy on commodity farming, nutrition programs, rural development, logging, and conservation. This policy is also what controls the price that is paid to farmers for their product but does not in any way control their costs for feed, energy, and supplies to maintain their farms. With inflation and government control on milk "royalties" it doesn't take a genius to figure out why it becomes difficult for a small farm to stay alive in todays 'cow eat cow' dairy market. This poses a grave threat my friends, if local farms begin to sink then cooperatives as well will lose business and in the end the market will be dominated by a few feeding the many which......well......I think we witnessed the damage done earlier when a strand of e.coli made its way into a spinach farm and soon packed its bags for a cross-country trip. See what I'm getting at? It's important to eat local and it's important to support our local farmers.

Rappin Rove

"He can't be beat/ Cause he's so white from his head to his feet."

This thing is just full of excruciating truths. Don't let this stunt fool anyone. Not only is Karl Rove one of the most evil bastards in the world, he's also one of the most cunning. The evil empire has taken to humility as of late in a scheme to make light of the last seven years of sin. George makes a joke about writing a "pop-up" book about his presidency, Rove dances like a complete ninny. An utterly despicable, vengeful, and stone-hearted ninny.

It's like the bigger kids on the playground laughing at each others' cruelty after they break your toy. Maybe if they make enough self-aware cracks at themselves, then history will be a little more lenient.

Vermont to Impeach Cheney; Bush Will Follow

Here's an op-ed from the not-so-far left by Frank...

Tuesday March 6th, Vermont celebrated its annual Town Meeting Day in which communities from all over the state assembled to vote on current issues including town budget proposals, ballot holders, office seekers, education etc. etc......I would love more than anything to delve into public concern over state property taxes and education but, well, that is not what this blog is about.....sorry.  Instead, I will digress a bit and rant about a subject that has captured my attention completely and convey my opinions and concerns in a manner so blunt and obnoxious I'm sure it will only be a matter of time before hate-mail finds its way en route to my humble abode. 

Along with the many articles that arose on Town Meeting Day, one that tickled my fancy was the Bush/Cheney nonbinding impeachment measure.  This was brought up under "other business" and began a wide panel of debate and dispute throughout the state - not really; in fact thirty six towns voted in favor of the movement and only eleven put off a vote on it, a tally in East Montpelier looked a bit like this: 123-27, pro-impeachment! Clarendon, another Vermont town voted 19-17 to reject the impeachment measure- man that says a lot!  Of course there had to be a Devil's Advocate who's opposing stance to the idea had to have a stronger foothold and Enosburg (home to a many proud National Guardsmen) played just the part.  An outspoken denizen of the quaint VT village, located smugly north of the Queen City east of the great Champlain, stated "......it had nothing to do with town business......" in which afterwards he was shown much gratification from a local soldier who was wounded in battle and had his limbs sutured back on with rubber bands, he is now a covert operative working to undermine the terrorist cell COBRA - not really.   Vermont, I'm routing for ya! I really am..... as a state that highly influenced the election of Thomas Jefferson which resulted in rescuing a country from totalitarian tendencies (portrayed in the Sedition Act of 1797) and weighing in the heaviest out of all states, casting the largest percentage of votes for Mr. Abe Lincoln, I believe our voice counts in times like these - so let us be heard!

It is apparent that President George W. Bush and Vice President Cheney have been taking a major loss lately in the approval polls, but really, is it much of a surprise?  As ring leaders (or perhaps I should say jesters - I just can't decide) of  the current administration they have been fumbling their way through their terms.  Lately we have witnessed yet another portrayal of misdirected guidance in which brings me to another issue that ties into the latter.  I. Lewis Libby Jr. a.k.a. "Scooter", Cheney's former Chief of Staff has been found guilty of perjury and obstruction of justice.  Scoot you really dun it now!   You should've known lyin' and submitting false information would land you a year in the crowbar-hotel, oooops am I being a bit facetious here?  Probably not, I mean c'mon, do you really think he's gonna have to do all twenty five years?  And now there's a talk about a pardon!  Mr. Bush has no comment pertaining to all of this except for ".....I was sad, I was sad for a man who had worked in my administration, and particularly sad for his family."   Boo-fuckin-hoo, hey you appointed him my man.  In fact if you surf on over to Scooter Libby.com you'll find a nice little cache of concerns and condolences backing a pardon for poor 'ol Scoot, including a fundraiser that the Times Argus reports it already has raised $4 million+  for the old man.  Scoot, why don't you help out Cheney with some of his hospital fees with that chunk of change?  Rumor has it the fat slob ain't eatin' so healthy these days and he's had enough heart attacks to rival a bevy of elderly war vets attending the screening of Saving Private Ryan.  Anyway, what's really going on here?  Scooter are you the "fall-guy"?  Can we put Cheney on trial yet?  And what about poor Valerie Wilson?  Well she'll be packing her bags and moving to New Mexico and then hopefully "Fair Game" will sell millions of copies, i mean it's got to - Warner Brothers just bought the movie rights.  I can't wait for the casting to begin, I just hope they dig up Dana Carvey to play Dubbya.

Well as they say, "time is of the essence", and it is about that time I tactfully wrap this up.  It is no wonder that approval ratings are down, it is no wonder that certain sentiments throughout the world are the way they are these days;  could it be because more disgruntled Iraqi refugees have migrated to our shores?  Probably not.  Since the Iraq War almost four million people have been displaced from their homes and two million have left the country.  An article in Time Magazine reports the U.S. taking in only 18 Iraqi refugees in 2005 and only 202 in 2006.......out of four million that no longer have a place called home since we initiated this fiasco.  Vermont, don't be afraid to voice your opinions in the manner you had on Town Meeting Day, I would say there is substantial reason to express such sentiments so let us express and be heard.
-Frank

Stranger Than Fiction

Will Ferrell's dramatic abilities are not exactly impressive. Despite a general critical attitude of mild acceptance of the inevitable fact that the actor can pull off a character that doesn't fit into the SNL worldview (one which Ferrell has arguably been integral in creating), essentially the performance was not the breakthrough some may have imagined. Ferrell's Harold Crick was seething on the verge of a breakdown from the start, and not intentionally. Those beady eyes of his, like a shark's, scanning the murkiness around him, ready to attack any and every comic opportunity, in the end gave him away. Ferrell didn't leave his improvisational genius at the arthouse doorstep on this one, nearly cracking after each successive straightman (honestly, isn't everyone a straightman when appearing with Will Ferrell?) offered up a tasty bit of comic set-up, only to cringe as his line-reading super-ego kicked in. "Talladega Nights" was sillier, stupider, and a lot easier to digest, but man, did it have a vitality and energy that Stranger Than Fiction could never rival. Only one scene breathed with any kind of life. Harold and Ana sit in the bus while the camera follows, um, actually it was hard to tell because the hinge in the big, two-part city bus keeps doing its thing. Eyelines are skewed, the camera gets confused, and it's as if Fellini stopped in as guest director for the afternoon. It's really fun.

Ana, as a character, is the worst kind of scriptwriting shortcut. Boy meets girl, boy must get over individual problem to get girl, boy gets girl. I don't want to call it insensitivity, but I wouldn't want to be a woman watching this film. She isn't even given a chance to decide whether she likes him. It's written in. If, as most of its champions will argue, the essence of the film is the simple love story, then it's a pretty one-sided story. The story is about Harold Crick, and all the other characters, including Ana, are foils, incapable of individuality. Perhaps director Marc Forster's take on contemporary fiction is exactly this. Sometimes singularity must be re-examined in the name of a more complex, humanistic story.

I think that's what left me wanting more from Stranger Than Fiction. The love story left me unsatisfied, it just felt a little too easy, and the concept of the story within the story didn't really point any fingers or take any particular stance. I can really only speculate as to Forster's take on fiction as a theme.

Little Miss Sunshine Was Stupid

This was a boring short-cut of a movie that front-loaded its story with a few nasty issues, dicked around for the entire second act with only one good scene where Steve Carell's Frank gets spotted buying porno magazines, and by the finale, completely blew apart any kind of intelligent resolutions that could have been made. Meanwhile this family unfairly has every bit of script-trickery bad luck thrown at them. The kid finds out he's color blind or something and can't get into the army (Oh kid, your dreams are shot down? That happens all the time, to every kid, once a week. I remember a particular Jimmy Page and Robert Plant reunion my dad wouldn't let me go to when I was 13. Devastating). How does this justify an ending? All other issues are left untouched other than to insinuate that wallowing in your own misery is somehow essential in life. Another determinist piece of garbage that's only bringing us down as humans.

But I had to say something, because the asshole responsible for this thing just won an Oscar. But here's proof that these people need to get out of Hollywood before the whole place implodes on itself. This was said of the writer's nomination:

"To write this script, Michael Arndt [Little Miss Sunshine] had to quit his job as personal assistant to Matthew Broderick."

Let's Raise the Money

For this

And I thought MY language was questionable...

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/02/18/books/18newb.html

History Doesn't Repeat Itself, But It Rhymes...

Despite a question as to the extent of the actual Iranian involvement in the arming of insurgent forces in Iraq, the executive branch has made a proclamation, and his word stands. Executive power now rests not only in administrative and military affairs, but in foreign relations as well. As it should. Doesn't it make sense that the word of one man should hold that much power? Why should UN investigations, Iranian justification, or diplomatic proceedings have any bearing here?

Two things get me about this issue. For one, the executive branch is on the verge of igniting another conflict that may have even less to do with the War on Terror. There's a War on something, obviously. We're like a kid at recess saying, "Alright, I know you guys are playing a joke, just tell me what it is." For two, try this one on. Questionable Arms Sales, Foreign Insurgencies, Iran. Weird, I know.

Old Fuckers

"By the time Ms. Binford got around to describing a safe sexual act involving Saran Wrap, a woman shouted, 'Enough, already!'"

amazing

-mike

Some Kid's Dictionary

I thought this was a good image to ponder. -Mike