Year: 2007

Boston was thrown into a tizzy when an attempt by Cartoon Network to promote its upcoming “Aqua Teen Hunger Force” feature film backfired into a perceived terrorist plot.

Apparently little electronic blinky devices based upon the ATHF character “Mooninite” have been showing up in major cities all across the country. But only in Beantown did citizens suddenly start worrying that these promotional devices were, in fact, part of an insidious terrorist scheme. As a consequence, the bomb squad has been spending its time running around the city defusing harmless toys, and now police have arrested the poor hapless bášŧárd who was hired to put the things up around the city.

The reason it’s of particular interest to this blog is that New England Comics (which, by the way, I’m told is having a 50% off sale that ends today) was one of the sites to receive one of the devices, and hilarity ensued. My daughter, Gwen, a store employee, was interviewed by local TV news. Click on the site link below and go to the section “Comic Book Store Employees Discuss Hoax.”

http://www.thebostonchannel.com/video/index.html

PAD

George W. Bush had no more caustic critics than the brilliant columnist Molly Ivins, who passed away after a long fight with breast cancer. Her various books on Bush are must reading for anyone who wants a bracing air of sanity after experiencing any neocon craziness. She will be missed.

PAD

In case anyone’s interested, below is a link to a podcast I did on a show called “Play or Die” (a title that reminds me of the Eddie Izzard routine “Cake or Death”: “Cake or death?!” “Uhm…cake.” “You! Cake or death!” “Cake.” “Cake or death!” “Death!” “Really? Hmm…no one’s ever chosen death before. Are you sure you wouldn’t like some cake?”)

http://podcast.fearlessradio.com/podcast/playordie/012607.mp3

Bush has described himself as “the Decider” and now “the Decision Maker.” Kathleen folded that into “the Decisioner,” but Ariel then came up with one I like even better: The Decisionator.

But here’s my question: Is he really?

From my admittedly layman’s understanding of these things, the President serves as the instrument of Congress. Congress has the power to declare war (or, as was the case with Iraq, the power to abrogate that power, apparently) and the President, as the Commander-in-Chief or, if you will the Decisionator, then wages the war on Congress’s behalf.

What I’m a little unclear on is: Does Congress has the power to *un*declare war?

The Decisionator is determined to send in more troops, and Congress seems determined to voice its objections via a nonbinding resolution, which is kind of like parents setting a curfew and then enforcing it by announcing that they’re going to snore really loudly in protest when the kid breaks it. What I want to know is whether Congress has the power to say, “We’re done. We were told the United States was going to war for these reasons. These reasons no longer exist. The war is over. We’re pulling out,” and then inform the President that he no longer has Congressional authority to wage war, and that if he continues to do so, he will be impeached. In which case, does the Decisionator obey their will or does he tell them to go screw themselves, in which case we have a full blown constitutional crisis.

I’m no con law scholar. I honestly don’t have any idea. But it would be interesting in that it would be the second time in the last seven years that matters relating to George Bush suddenly send everyone scrambling to the constitution to see what should happen next.

PAD

From Paris to New York to Bete Noire…whad’ja think?

PAD

Ask the New York Times:

Stephen King’s Midnight Madness

Every week comic book fans look forward to Wednesdays, the day new issues go on sale. On Feb. 7, one of those comics will be the first issue of a new seven-part series based on the Stephen King novel “The Dark Tower,” above, from Marvel Entertainment. To commemorate the event, almost 150 comic book retailers across the country will begin selling the issue at the stroke of midnight. A list of participating stores can be found at www.marvel.com/news/comicstories. Fans who flock to Midtown Comics in Manhattan will see a couple of special guests: Peter David, who writes the dialogue for the series, and Jae Lee, the book’s artist. The store will open for one hour.

GEORGE GENE GUSTINES