OH JESUS...




Flat Daddy.

If you’re reading this page it’s probably because you’ve heard about Flat Daddy™ and the wonderful way it’s being used to help children stay connected to a deployed parent. He’s also filling the “blank space” in family occasion photos, event and trips. Just look at the pictures to see all the places he’s been! It’s exciting.

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Cindy, and her 19 month old daughter Sarah, introduce you to Flat Daddy™. Three months after Sarah’s dad was deployed, Cindy took a "waist up" photo (highest quality 8x10 color photo) of him, dressed in fatigues, to a local print shop (see #2 below). They enlarged it to life size (see #1 below for how to determine the finished size of the figure) and mounted it on foam board (see #3 below) - like a big, two-dimensional paper doll. "He was missing so many family gatherings" said Cindy. So, Flat Daddy™ traveled to graduations, weddings, and other celebrations where he took his rightful place in the photographs (see #4 below). Copies of the photos were sent to Daddy overseas so he could see where he'd traveled. Cindy keeps an album at home of everywhere Flat Daddy™ has been...even tucking Sarah into bed. Speaking of Sarah, real Daddy received a Flat Sarah, minus the foam board, so he could see how much she'd grown.

I tell myself, this can't be real. But it is, isn't it? People are actually using cardboard stand-ups of soldiers. Do they do this with the deceased, as well? God, that's morbid.

This is so fucking criminal it redefines the term. Let's just publish the whole thing, shall we?

Bush administration officials unveiled a bold new assertion of executive authority yesterday in the dispute over the firing of nine U.S. attorneys, saying that the Justice Department will never be allowed to pursue contempt charges initiated by Congress against White House officials once the president has invoked executive privilege.

The position presents serious legal and political obstacles for congressional Democrats, who have begun laying the groundwork for contempt proceedings against current and former White House officials in order to pry loose information about the dismissals.

Under federal law, a statutory contempt citation by the House or Senate must be submitted to the U.S. attorney for the District of Columbia, "whose duty it shall be to bring the matter before the grand jury for its action."

But administration officials argued yesterday that Congress has no power to force a U.S. attorney to pursue contempt charges in cases, such as the prosecutor firings, in which the president has declared that testimony or documents are protected from release by executive privilege. Officials pointed to a Justice Department legal opinion during the Reagan administration, which made the same argument in a case that was never resolved by the courts.

"A U.S. attorney would not be permitted to bring contempt charges or convene a grand jury in an executive privilege case," said a senior official, who said his remarks reflect a consensus within the administration. "And a U.S. attorney wouldn't be permitted to argue against the reasoned legal opinion that the Justice Department provided. No one should expect that to happen."

The official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to discuss the issue publicly, added: "It has long been understood that, in circumstances like these, the constitutional prerogatives of the president would make it a futile and purely political act for Congress to refer contempt citations to U.S. attorneys."

Mark J. Rozell, a professor of public policy at George Mason University who has written a book on executive-privilege issues, called the administration's stance "astonishing."

"That's a breathtakingly broad view of the president's role in this system of separation of powers," Rozell said. "What this statement is saying is the president's claim of executive privilege trumps all."

The administration's statement is a dramatic attempt to seize the upper hand in an escalating constitutional battle with Congress, which has been trying for months, without success, to compel White House officials to testify and to turn over documents about their roles in the prosecutor firings last year. The Justice Department and White House in recent weeks have been discussing when and how to disclose the stance, and the official said he decided yesterday that it was time to highlight it.

Yesterday, a House Judiciary subcommittee voted to lay the groundwork for contempt proceedings against White House chief of staff Joshua B. Bolten, following a similar decision last week against former White House counsel Harriet E. Miers.

The administration has not directly informed Congress of its view. A spokeswoman for Rep. John Conyers Jr. (D-Mich.), the Judiciary Committee's chairman, declined to comment . But other leading Democrats attacked the argument.

Senate Majority Leader Harry M. Reid (D-Nev.) called it "an outrageous abuse of executive privilege" and said: "The White House must stop stonewalling and start being accountable to Congress and the American people. No one, including the president, is above the law."

Sen. Charles E. Schumer (N.Y.) said the administration is "hastening a constitutional crisis," and Rep. Henry A. Waxman (D-Calif.) said the position "makes a mockery of the ideal that no one is above the law."

Waxman added: "I suppose the next step would be just disbanding the Justice Department."

Under long-established procedures and laws, the House and Senate can each pursue two kinds of criminal contempt proceedings, and the Senate also has a civil contempt option. The first, called statutory contempt, has been the avenue most frequently pursued in modern times, and is the one that requires a referral to the U.S. attorney in the District.

Both chambers also have an "inherent contempt" power, allowing either body to hold its own trials and even jail those found in defiance of Congress. Although widely used during the 19th century, the power has not been invoked since 1934 and Democratic lawmakers have not displayed an appetite for reviving the practice.

In defending its argument, administration officials point to a 1984 opinion by the Justice Department's Office of Legal Counsel, headed at the time by Theodore B. Olson, a prominent conservative lawyer who was solicitor general from 2001 to 2004. The opinion centered on a contempt citation issued by the House for Anne Gorsuch Burford, then administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency.

It concluded: "The President, through a United States Attorney, need not, indeed may not, prosecute criminally a subordinate for asserting on his behalf a claim of executive privilege. Nor could the Legislative Branch or the courts require or implement the prosecution of such an individual."

In the Burford case, which involved spending on the Superfund program, the White House filed a federal lawsuit to block Congress's contempt action. The conflict subsided when Burford turned over documents to Congress.

The Bush administration has not previously signaled it would forbid a U.S. attorney from pursuing a contempt case in relation to the prosecutor firings. But officials at Justice and elsewhere say it has long held that Congress cannot force such action.

David B. Rifkin, who worked in the Justice Department and White House counsel's office under presidents Ronald Reagan and George H.W. Bush, praised the position and said it is consistent with the idea of a "unitary executive." In practical terms, he said, "U.S. attorneys are emanations of a president's will." And in constitutional terms, he said, "the president has decided, by virtue of invoking executive privilege, that is the correct policy for the entire executive branch."

But Stanley Brand, who was the Democratic House counsel during the Burford case, said the administration's legal view "turns the constitutional enforcement process on its head. They are saying they will always place a claim of presidential privilege without any judicial determination above a congressional demand for evidence -- without any basis in law." Brand said the position is essentially telling Congress: "Because we control the enforcement process, we are going to thumb our nose at you."

Rozell, the George Mason professor and authority on executive privilege, said the administration's stance "is almost Nixonian in its scope and breadth of interpreting its power. Congress has no recourse at all, in the president's view. . . . It's allowing the executive to define the scope and limits of its own powers."

We;re not heading toward a constitutional crisis. We're in one. Congress needs to grow some balls and make this fight ugly and public.

This is so pathetic:

I now realize what I didn't get at 14, or even at 20: I am a full-blood muggle. Everyone I know is a muggle. Even my heroes are muggles. Most of us live regular sorts of lives, without benefit of spells or potions to cure our problems. The real fantasy of these novels was not a world where magic exists, but a world in which we were all chosen ones.

"Alleged Victim" Alert

I invented the phrase as a joke about the callous approach any-means-to-an-end types bring toward a few broken eggs. Turns out National Review sees me as visionary:

The defense is arguing that they counter-attacked in self-defense. It strikes me as significant that the defense apparently had evidence that one of the alleged victims was a known terrorist, and not a "disabled, retired policeman" (of course he could have been both).

That's my line! It's sad when the right-wing tragicomedy of Dave Miller repeats as farce.

Today I got a phone call from 954-427-4604. As I tend to do with an unfamiliar number, I declined to answer, and instead looked up the number online, hoping, of course, that it was some cute chick I know who I forgot had a Florida area code. Well, that did not happen. But interestingly, the number had a surprising share of Google hits, such as this one.

Here's a preview of the concept art for Love in the year 2000, the brilliant short film I am currently pre-producing. More news to come, I'm sure.

Here's one of the great performances of all time. I like Sid Vicous' tough-guy sociopath posturing, which culminates in gunning down members of the audience, including his girlfriend, Nancy Spungen. It should be mentioned that Sid, whose real name was Simon Ritchie, copped his nom du punk from John Lydon's pet hamster, and was always described as a sweetheart and pussycat by all his friends. On the other hand, he did stab his girlfriend, which gives him a little hardass cred.

Raspberries
Overnight Sensation

Written by Eric Carmen

Well I know it sounds funny
But I'm not in it for the money, no
I don't need reputation
And I'm not in it for the show

I just want a hit record
Want to hear it on the radio
Want a big hit record
One that everybody's got to know

Well the program director don't pull it
Then it's bound to get back the bullet
So bring the group down to the station
You're gonna be an overnight sensation

I've been tryin' to write the lyric
Not offensive but satiric, too
If you can get it in the "A" slot
It's just gotta make a mint for you

And I want a hit record
Want to hear it on the radio
Want a big hit record
One that everybody's got to own

Overnight sensation

I fit the words
To a good melody
Amazing how success
Has been ignoring me so long

I've used my bread
Making demos all day
And writing in the night
While in my head I hear
The record play
Hear it play

Hit record, yeah
Want a hit record, yeah
Want a hit record, yeah
(Number one)
Want a hit record, yeah
(Number one)