MOVIES REVIEWS CATCHUP

I am way behind in posting my reviews. Some of these date back to May. I haven't posted a book review on Amazon since January. Taking a leadership spot at work has certainly curtailed my criticism writing.

Since Netflix has allowed me to create my own mini film festivals, Ill start with a recent creation.

JAMES STEWART-ANTHONY MANN WESTERNS

WINCHESTER ’73 (1950) – This is the first entry and the only B/W. The story centers on a rare rifle that everyone wants and a character called Dutch Henry Brown that Stewart wants to kill. There are some great moments and the psychological elements that made the series famous are also present. It was unusual in contemporary westerns that a hero like Stewart would proclaim that he wants to kill someone, but it’s still a bit stuck in other conventional Western patterns nonetheless. The New York sounding Dan Duryea plays a cold blooded killer. Rock Hudson plays an Indian chief. Tony Curtis can be seen somewhere. The underrated character actor John McIntire has a small role and he would turn up as the heavy in a later installment.

BEND OF THE RIVER (1952) – It develops early as a buddy film between Stewart and Arthur Kennedy two guys that share a similar past as gun fighters. The two volunteer to help some settlers get provisions to their new homestead. Stewart shows that ill reputes can be redeemed while Arthur Kennedy shows that it’s not always so. Rock Hudson gets a bigger role as a gambler that pitches in against the villains. The relationships here are bit clumsy. I have trouble believing Kennedy would turn his back on Stewart while the Rock Hudson character seems a little too ambiguous leading up to the conclusion.

THE FAR COUNTRY (1955) – This is my favorite of the series. McIntire plays the heavy and Walter Brennan plays Stewart’s sidekick. There’s also a love triangle with Stewart on either side of the worldly Ruth Roman and the naïve Corrine Calvet. Stewart seems the most torn between morality and self-determinism here and that’s the theme of the whole series looking back. I heard a critic once say that Stewart was more in touch with his anger than any prominent American actor in the history of film. It‘s his anger in this series that’s so unusual for leading men and Stewart in general. There’s a look in his eyes that says temporary insanity.

The series also includes THE NAKED SPUR (not on DVD) and MAN FROM LARAMIE (which I couldn’t get to play in my machine). Either could be the best of the series. I've seen snipets of both on AMC through the years.

ONES I SHOULD I HAVE SEEN BEFORE NOW

DO THE RIGHT THING (1989) – Spike Lee makes better movies than his militant persona leads on. For instance, Danny Aillleo is much more sympathetic than you’d expect a white character to be. Spike even makes his own character ambivalent rather than heroic. The movie has some really good performances by the likes of Ossie Davis and John Turturro, but still the movie gets too much credit overall. Spike sets up a believable story of hot summertime Brooklyn and even the eventual riot that ensues makes dramatic sense, but the epilogue between Lee and Aiello rings so false that it spoils the realism that led up to it. Lee wants the audience to forgive the mob violence that ruined Aiello’s pizza joint with the reasoning that Aiello is insured. That it never seemed to be about money to Aiello is conveniently ignored so that the people who started the riot can be forgiven without consequences.

F FOR FAKE (1973) – The last completed movie directed by Orson Welles is many times interesting but too fragmented to make a cohesive whole. He’s great to see on camera, funny and mischievous. His voice over line readings have always been the gold standard. The movie breaks down into two parts. The first is the study of famous fakers and the second is Welles own fraud to bring the film to feature length. It’s a shame that Welles didn’t helm a commercial film in the 1960s to keep his directing career alive. Nobody could have done better with this material than Welles and yet style can’t always make up for substance.

+ ADVISE AND CONSENT (1962) – Otto Preminger directed film based on the Pulitzer Prize winning novel by Alan Drury. Charles Laughton’s last film is a great example of his uniqueness in film history. Laughton was one of the few homely character actors to attain leading role status due to his incredible talent alone. Dude’s recent comparison to P.S. Hoffman is apt. I once thought that Gary Oldman was taking on the Laughton mantle, but he’s more chameleon like while Laughton could never disguise that mug. The center of the story is the ailing Democrat President wanting to name the controversial Henry Fonda as his new Secretary of State. Laughton is the southern Democrat opposed to the nomination. The story takes on a number of twists and the supporting characters, Walter Pidgeon, Peter Lawford and Burgess Meredith are well cast. Like George Stevens, Preminger hasn’t been given due credit for his body of work.

BUNNY LAKE IS MISSING (1965) is probably Preminger last decent film. Here an American brother and sister relocate to England to with the sister’s young daughter. Soon after the film begins, the sister’s daughter comes up missing and it’s up to English detective Lawrence Olivier to find the daughter or discover is she ever even existed. Since the audience has never seen her, we are given reason to wonder the same thing. Like 80% of all films that begin well, you have to forgive the disjointed ending a little.

RECENT FILMS

THE FORGOTTEN (2004) – This is not quite a remake of Bunny Lake, but it does share the story of the missing daughter that no one believes exists. From there is heads into otherworldly territory that might intrigue Dude and his recent studies. The trailer doesn’t give this part of the movie away. Good character actors, Alfre Woodard, Gary Sinise, and Anthony Edwards help make this a little better than the average genre picture.

HOSTAGE (2005) - I like Bruce Willis enough to watch his average action films hoping for another DIE HARD. He made his money in films like this, but movies like PULP FICTION, SIXTH SENSE and even NOBODY’S FOOL show his range much better. This is full of the petty villains that grow more psychotic, the authorities that are clueless and the big overarching super villains that always keep their poise. While entertaining enough at the time, you’ll forget it by the end of your next meal.

KINSEY (2004) – Commentators have always treated Kinsey as a pretty straight-laced guy in real life, but the filmmakers make him out to be a pervert by modern standards and a freak by the standards of his time. Interestingly enough is that the movie seems to be designed more to normalize his behavior than explain his importance on the scientific study of sex. Liam Neeson does a decent job. The secondary characters played by Chris O’Donnell, Timothy Hutton and Peter Sarsgaard aren’t developed quite enough outside the little petty rivalries they develop. John Lithgow plays Neeson’s father as a derivative of the character he played in Footloose. I don’t think Bill Condon decided whether he was making a comedy or drama, because the movie weaves back and forth. And although it’s just under two hours, it still seemed 30 minutes too long. Condon also directed GODS AND MONSTERS, another acclaimed film that left me cold.

THE NOTEBOOK (2004) Nick Cassavettes has cashed in his father’s indie credentials for a studio directing career. His mother Gena Rowlands and the reliable Jim Garner provide the sentimentality, while the youngsters including the fetching Rachel McAdams provide the sex appeal. It’s hard not to like, but guiltily so.

BRIDGET JONES: The Edge of Reason (2004) – While the Notebook was in response to the wife’s insistence that I stop throwing art house movies at her, Bridget Jones is a full capitulation of my aesthetic tastes to the art of compromise. Trish loves these books and forgives this sequel despite the 20% Rotten Tomatoes rating. The first movie is actually better than I would have thought and the second one suffers from repetition more than anything else. It goes to show that $100 million at the box office dictates sequels, not rich storylines.

Assassination of Richard Nixon (2004) – Sean Penn is believable playing the sympathetic loser that slowly blames his problems on Richard Nixon. There are some sad scenes of him trying to reconnect with his ex-wife and kids. A couple of other scenes with him working as a furniture salesmen seem realistic too. Frank Capra said that movies are real life with the boring parts cut out. Here the boring parts are left in.

NAPOLEON DYNAMITE (2004) – Like My Big Fat Greek Wedding, this movie gets street cred not for being great, but for outperforming at the box office. The filmmaker has a quirky sense of humor that reminded me of Wes Anderson. The scene where Napoleon meets Pedro and the scene with the uncle and the time machine seemed to be a B movie version of Anderson. Overall, I got kind of tired of it and it didn’t end particularly well.

Undertow (2004) – The latest film from David Gordon Green has a couple of recognizable actors including Dermot Mullroney. Roger Ebert loves this guy’s filmmaking and I have to admit that it’s not without interest. I didn’t love his debut GEORGE WASHINGTON but I respected it. I did admire his follow-up ALL THE REAL GIRLS. This runs hot and cold with me liking a good deal of it, but not really believing the ending.

THE LIFE AND DEATH OF PETER SELLERS (2004) – Geoffrey Rush is one of my favorite actors. Peter Sellers was brilliant. Geoffrey Rush plays a stellar Sellers. The movie isn’t much more beyond that. It’s just one more example of how a humble enough guy becomes a heel through too much adoration and fawning.

+AVIATOR (2004) – One of the better movies from last year. Scorsese has been a little spotty lately with even the entertaining GANGS OF NEW YORK becoming forgettable. There is nothing about this film that would make me think he directed it, which might be a positive if you compare it to his work during the last ten years.

TWO STEVE MCQUEENS

+THE CINCINNATI KID (1965) I saw this again right as it came on DVD. Depression era New Orleans makes a great setting and the supporting players, Karl Madlen, Ann-Margaret, Rip Torn, Jack Weston and Tuesday Weld add production value. The essence of the film is the showdown between Steve McQueen and Edward G. Robinson and although the final poker hand is a stretch the drama is quite good. Commentary tracks by Norman Jewison and another by Phil Gordon and David Foley add something too. The old VHS ending had McQueen alone. The TV and DVD version has McQueen reunite with Weld.

THE WAR LOVER (1962) – Based on the novel by John Hersey, Steve McQueen is the guy you like early on until he reveals himself to be a dirtbag. Robert Wagner is his pal and co-pilot. This was one of McQueen’s early breakout roles and you can see the star power come through. Wagner’s career was already longer than McQueen’s but you can see why it never really took off. The movie itself was less interesting with every exposed frame.

REVISTING FILMS I LIKED

+LAST OF THE MOHICANS (1992) – Mark Twain hated the novel by James Fenimore Cooper so much that he wrote an entire essay on it. Michael Mann and Daniel Day Lewis do a great job of making a compelling film. I liked it in the theatre years ago and I still liked it on this my second viewing. Very few films tackle this pre-Revolutionary war period well. This might be the best effort I have seen.

HONKEYTONK MAN (1981) – The critics have never much like this Eastwood film, but I have always found it charming and understated for this period in his career. Eastwood is an obscure country singer dying of TB trying to become famous before he leaves the world. Eastwood’s son Kyle makes a good co-star. James Stewart was offered the role as Grandfather, but since he refused to ever play grandfathers, he turned it down flat. The Grandfather is instead played by Stewart’s FAR COUNTRY nemesis, John McIntire. What a small world. It’s overly sentimental and a stretch and yet I fall for it every time.

+HIS GIRL FRIDAY (1940) I just finished Ben Hecht’s autobiography last week and Trish wanted to see something funny so this movie played into both of our desires. The lightning fast dialogue and interplay between Cary Grant and Rosiland Russell will hold up 100 years from now, I suppose. It’s not realism, but the kind of zany world that’s much more fun than the life.

OTHER FILMS

+BRUTE FORCE (1947) – This is a good testament to the lasting influence of those commie blacklisted filmmakers and the support they still garner by the zillionaires in Hollywood. Before the openly communist, Jules Dassin was exiled to make films in Europe, he was undercover in America making films like this. There’s great drama here with Burt Lancaster leading a group of prison inmates that are either sympathetic for their innocence or the mitigating circumstances that led them to crime. It’s almost funny that the only real bad guy is sadistic prison guard Hume Cronyn. It certainly foreshadows Shawshank Redemption. Warner Brothers may have let gangsters become leading men, but they were always shot for cause in the last reel. Their ends here are treated as less than just. The over riding villain is not even Cronyn but the cold free market system itself that brought these little angels to crime. While this was a shockingly anti-American position in 1947, it’s become so standard in modern film its no wonder the Left hates HUAC and Kazan more than the Rooskies. Brute Force is one of those superior efforts with B material that is both entertaining and historically significant for its influence on modern themes.

MICHAEL MOORE HATES AMERICA (2004) – It’s not the negative film that the title suggests but a look at the positive things about America that Moore ignores for the sake of his own drama. Michael Wilson presents some interesting ideas about documentary film especially talking with Penn Gillette. He traces Moore’s steps in Flint Michigan to show it’s not such a hell hole. He also visits the bank from BOWLING FROM COLUMBINE to prove that the storyline behind the gun giveaway is totally misrepresented for the sake of drama. Wilson mostly shows how Moore plays into the dominant media bias enough that critics refuse to see beyond their own prejudices to critique the actual truth behind Moore’s claims.

+George Stevens: A filmmakers Journey (1984) – This is the second time I have seen this documentary on the forgotten filmmaker. Stevens’ son, George Jr. runs the American Film Institute at the Kennedy Center and he narrates this movie. Stevens began shooting Laurel and Hardy films in the 1920s and all but stopped making films when his big budget GREATEST STORY EVER TOLD flopped despite 5 years of production to get it just right. Stevens made some real classics, GUNGA DIN, WOMAN OF THE YEAR, A PLACE IN THE SUN, and GIANT that I have seen numerous times. This documentary makes you want to see his movies all over again.

VIVA LAS VEGAS (1964) – Elvis movies are something you like as a kid, dislike as a film student and then learn to like again on their own terms. Elvis wasn’t a good actor (or at least he didn’t try much) and his movies are usually shoddily written and yet the camera loved the guy. I tend to think his pre-Army movies are the best. Even the somewhat underrated LOVING YOU (1958) has a lot of charm. This is probably one of his better 60s movies and although you don’t believe it one moment, it’s still fun enough to watch.

TALL IN THE SADDLE (1944) – The Duke in a B-Movie Western known best by the Junto as the movie where Wayne calls the Queen dead during a poker game. “He’ll be back, he’s the type.” Kevin saw this before me and re-told the poker scene in great detail that had me laughing. When it came on DVD I decided to jump on it for old times sake. I wish Dude had been in the director's chair, because the poker game is a humorous scene, but I prefer Dude's telling of it a little more.

(+) denotes exceptional film

Police in Suburbs Blocked Evacuees (Via Hugh Hewitt)

Police agencies to the south of New Orleans were so fearful of the crowds trying to leave the city after Hurricane Katrina that they sealed a crucial bridge over the Mississippi River and turned back hundreds of desperate evacuees, two paramedics who were in the crowd said.

The paramedics and two other witnesses said officers sometimes shot guns over the heads of fleeing people, who, instead of complying immediately with orders to leave the bridge, pleaded to be let through, the paramedics and two other witnesses said. The witnesses said they had been told by the New Orleans police to cross that same bridge because buses were waiting for them there.

Instead, a suburban police officer angrily ordered about 200 people to abandon an encampment between the highways near the bridge. The officer then confiscated their food and water, the four witnesses said. The incidents took place in the first days after the storm last week, they said.

"The police kept saying, 'We don't want another Superdome,' and 'This isn't New Orleans,' " said Larry Bradshaw, a San Francisco paramedic who was among those fleeing.

Arthur Lawson, chief of the Gretna, La., Police Department, confirmed that his officers, along with those from the Jefferson Parish Sheriff's Office and the Crescent City Connection Police, sealed the bridge.

"There was no place for them to come on our side," Mr. Lawson said.

He said that he had been asked by reporters about officers threatening victims with guns or shooting over their heads, but he said that he had not yet asked his officers about that.

"As soon as things calm down, we will do an inquiry and find out what happened," he said.

Since it doesn't fit the Fed Failed Framework, this is a story that won't have many legs.

Anniversary of 911

Instapundit has the shocking reminder of citizens jumping out of buildings to their death. Four short years and the media has mostly swept the realities under the rug. That last years election hinged on Bush's National Guard service instead of a willingness to fight the bad guys is testament to how our betters consider 911 unfortunate and Katrina a crime against humanity.

INSTA-SAGE

THE PRESS WANTS TO SHOW BODIES from Katrina. It didn't want to show bodies, or jumpers, on 9/11, for fear that doing so would inflame the public.

I can only conclude that this time around, the press thinks it's a good thing to inflame the public. What could the difference be?

SLIDESHOW NEW ORLEANS (Via the Corner)

A very thorough documentation and telling from a New Orleans hotel employee.

DUDE'S MOVIE ROUNDUP

Now that I have Tivo, I am watching fewer DVDs and much more poker, history channel, and SpongeBob. This short list is several months in the making:

MARIA FULL OF GRACE
This is the only title on this list that I would wholly recommend - a very interesting film with great moments, especially the inflight sequence. Maria is a Comombian malcontent who turns to drug muling to make some needed cash. Once she gets to America, she ably skirts danger and ultimately decides not to leave the promised land, so that she may raise her pending child in Bush country.

I, ROBOT
Enjoyable so far as popcorn flicks go. Requisite overcomplicated plot. Wil Smith is still doing his ID4 character.

CLOSER
Started off great, loved the opening meet cute, but downhill from there and kind of depressing, except for the barely clothed Natalie Portman scenes.

WAR OF THE WORLDS
Speilberg is the master of scenes as opposed to story. There are great tense moments but the film feels like a collection of set pieces. When Tim Robbins pops the hood to his bomb shelter and flags down Cruise/Fanning from the delirious crowd, it's as if he's saying "You two, come on, let's do some scenes down here!"

OWNING MAHONEY
Philip Seymour Hoffman is our Charles Laughton. He is great in this role, though the movie is ultimately unsatisfying.

CHARLIE AND THE CHOCOLATE FACTORY
As with all Burton films to date, I go for the Elfman score and find the film overrated. The only Burton film that I truly love is NIGHTMARE BEFORE CHRISTMAS and that is mostly because of the Elfman songs. The songs here feel too overproduced, and they even make jokes about that in the film. Burton's pacing always feels wrong as he is more interested in showing off his fun sets than conveying story. Am I the only person who prefers the original?

INCIDENT AT LOCH NESS
I've seen a handful of Werner Herzog films and I tend to enjoy them depsite methodical pacing. This film isn't a Herzog, but it is Herzogian and stars Herzog as Herzog. It is a mockumentary that plays it straight and suceeds for a long time until the cryptozoologist appears and he is clearly acting. Herzog is amazing in this film - I absolutely love him here. At no time do you ever get the feeling that he is acting, he is genius really. The commentary track carries the joke too far as first Herzog then a handful of others all in turn walk out on the director in disgust.

BATTLE ROYALE
The youth in Japan are getting too rebellious so a law is passed that every year a middle school class is chosen randomly and sent to an island to fight to a lone survivor. What's not to like here? There's something oddly appealing about watching Japanese schoolgirls fighting to the death, but despite the glowing review on AMG, I found the whole affair rang a little hollow for my tastes. I believe the premise first made waves as a graphic novel in Japan and that seems the appropriate medium for this story.

MR & MRS SMITH
Doug Liman makes good movies. This was certainly entertaining though hardly a modern classic. It is great fun when they are both hunting each other and flirting, but the nuance is lost in the back half when the whole story becomes like a comic book. Pitt and Jolie are about as beautiful as people get. This is a decent entry into the WAR OF THE ROSES camp of spousal abuse films.

SUPREME COURT PROGNOSTICATING

WSJ's Manual Miranda thinks it will be a woman or hispanic for diversity needs or a senator because they usually get easy confirmatiion. Here's his list.

The women

• Edith Jones.A Texan who has sat on the Fifth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals for 20 years, Judge Jones has a deep judicial record that compares well to Rehnquist's. Unlike many nominees, she has the real affection of many conservative leaders.

• Priscilla Owen. A Texan who joined the Fifth Circuit earlier this year as part of the filibuster compromise, Judge Owen has more appellate experience than past Supreme Court nominees, but having served on a state supreme court with limited jurisdiction, she has written on few hot-button issues. She has the attributes of wide name recognition as the subject of three years of Democrat obstruction, and she is well known in the White House. Karl Rove ran her campaign for election to the Texas Supreme Court.

• Janice Rogers Brown. Judge Brown joined the U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia as part of the filibuster compromise. Her principled writings over nearly a decade as a California Supreme Court justice have made her a hero to conservatives, especially after the U.S. Supreme Court's unpopular decision in Kelo v. New London on taking of private property, a topic upon which she has famously opined. The White House would score several points by nominating a brilliant, eloquent and charming black woman raised in the Deep South.

• Maura Corrigan. Now on the Michigan Supreme Court, she was popularly elected three times, first to the appeals court where she served as chief judge and then to the state high court. She has 13 years' appellate experience and is a widow with two grown children. It would be hard for Democrats to oppose a popular judge from a swing blue state.

The Hispanics

• Emilio Garza. A Texan of Mexican descent who has served since 1991 on the Fifth Circuit, Judge Garza has all the attributes and clear judicial record for which conservatives are looking. Judge Garza has the additional gift of being friendly, affable and gracious.

• Danny Boggs. A 19-year veteran of the Sixth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals and currently its chief judge, the Cuban-born Judge Boggs has a deep judicial record and an overwhelming intellect.

• Raoul Cantero. The first Hispanic on the Florida Supreme Court was vetted for that post by the president's brother, Gov. Jeb Bush. Justice Cantero's record is not deep, but it is principled and he would meet another conservative goal of seating the court with young jurists. Justice Cantero is 45.

The senators

• Jeff Sessions. The second-term Alabama senator is one of the Senate's brightest and most endearing personalities. In 1986 the then-U.S. attorney was rejected by the Senate Judiciary Committee when President Reagan nominated him to be a federal district judge. He went on to become Alabama's attorney general before being elected in 1996 to replace one of the men who voted against him, Democrat Howell Heflin. He now sits on the Judiciary Committee alongside several other erstwhile opponents, including Chairman Arlen Specter.

• John Cornyn. The Texas freshman, elected in 2002, has served as state attorney general and a Texas Supreme Court justice. In the Senate he has carved out a place as a constitutional scholar and a principled thinker. Mr. Cornyn's nomination would allow the Texas governor to appoint Rep. Henry Bonilla to the Senate.

• Mel Martinez. Florida's recently elected senator has no judicial record but wide experience as the secretary of housing and urban development and mayor of Orlando. He is a devout Catholic with a remarkable personal story and is Hispanic.

SANDY BERGER CROOK

A judge on Thursday ordered Sandy Berger, President Clinton's national security adviser, to pay a $50,000 fine for illegally taking classified documents from the National Archives.

The punishment handed down by U.S. Magistrate Judge Deborah Robinson exceeded the $10,000 fine recommended by government lawyers. Under the deal, Berger avoids prison time but he must surrender access to classified government materials for three years.

"The court finds the fine is inadequate because it doesn't reflect the seriousness of the offense," Robinson said, as a grim-faced Berger stood silently.

Earlier in the hearing, Berger expressed remorse for his crime, which he described as a lapse of judgment that came while he was preparing to testify before the Sept. 11 commission.

"I let considerations of personal convenience override clear rules of handling classified material," Berger said. "I believe this lapse, serious as it is, does not reflect the character of myself."

The sentencing capped a bizarre sequence of events in which Berger admitted to sneaking classified documents out of the Archives in his suit, later destroying some of them in his office and then lying about it.

After initially saying it was an "honest mistake," Berger pleaded guilty in April to a misdemeanor of unauthorized removal and retention of classified material, which contained information relating to terror threats in the United States during the 2000 millennium celebration.

What was it that Liddy and Colson did during Watergate that landed themm behind bars? This guy should have done time and lost even the most basic of security clearance for life. Whatever he destroyed certainly made the 9-11 commission report incomplete. Did it have anything to do with the intel on Atta? We'll never know.

TODAY'S BEST

Tony Blankley on what Katrina should teach us.

As heartbreaking, appalling and disgraceful as this event covering an area the size of Kansas is, it is merely a warning, writ small, of the danger facing the entire country (indeed, our entire Western civilization) if we continue to face the Islamist threat with the same complacency with which we have faced the threat to New Orleans and the Gulf Coast.

Complacency is easy to spot after the fact. Today, we are all indignant with the complacency of our governments concerning the conditions in New Orleans. And yet, how many of us, honestly, had given a moment's thought to this until sometime last Tuesday morning? Perhaps we assumed our governments were handling such matters? We were wrong.

We Americans are proud of our self-reliance. But today, that self-reliance requires each citizen to think for himself or herself about other dangers, such as the Islamist terrorist threat, and to inquire whether our government is complacent or seized with a sense of urgency to protect America.

I happen to think that regarding the Islamist threat, President Bush has shown more concern and provided more action than most of politicians and journalists. But even the president's actions and thoughts are very dangerously short of what is needed. As much as he has done, it still falls within the category of complacency if one seriously thinks about the threat.

The mortal danger we face comes not merely from Osama bin Laden and a few thousand terrorists. Rather, we are confronted with the Islamic world -- one-fifth of mankind -- in turmoil and insurgent as it has not been in at least 500 (if not 1,500) years. We don't yet know whether this passion has touched 1 percent, 10 percent or 50 percent of over a billion souls. But combined with the sudden and untimely availability of weapons of mass destruction to any sufficiently determined large group of people -- and facilitated by the dangerously interconnected globalized world -- the threat to us all must be as urgently dealt with today, as New Orleans should have been last week and last year and last decade.

I argue that across the board -- from cargo containers searched, to Arab translators hired, to borders guarded, to domestic and foreign intelligence collected, to rational scrutiny of Arab and Muslim young men, to political correctness snubbed, to the size of our military, to our (and Europe's) willingness to defend our culture from Islamist
intimidation, to our international diplomacy -- we remain as complacent and exposed to mortal threat today as were the poor dead souls of New Orleans last week.

But at least we, the still-living, have been given a providential warning.

Bill Murchison on the stupidity of trusting the government to take care of us - or to do much of anything well.

A highly intelligent column by the Wall Street Journal's Daniel Henninger suggests that a basic cause of the mess is over-reliance on bureaucracy, given that bureaucracies tend to personify inefficiency and waste. "This was the primary lesson of the 9/11 Commission Report," Henninger notes.

And Cal Thomas on John Roberts.

With Roberts' nomination to the court already enjoying the announced support of several Democrat Senators, it will be difficult for them to oppose him for chief justice. The question now is: Should President Bush nominate an equally conservative person to the court to fill the remaining vacancy?

He should if he wishes to remain consistent to his often-proclaimed desire to have a court that makes decisions based on the Constitution and not the personal whims, prejudices and objectives of individual judges. No political doctrine has been stated and restated by President Bush as much as this one. To go against it now would be the political equivalent of the president denying his faith.

Bush gets it when it comes to ideology. Unlike his father who listened to top aides and gave the country the liberal disaster named David Souter, whom Senator Edward Kennedy now praises, Bush is not about to see his legacy tainted by someone who is a closet liberal.

Rehnquist could have cared less what the Times thought during his life and the same could be said about the paper's prediction concerning his legacy. He cared about the Constitution and the Court. That is the model President Bush used in finding and selecting John Roberts, and it is the model he should use in his second selection.

PIRATES FIRE McCLENDON

This is the Pirates' 13th consecutive losing season, with no end in sight. Everyone predicted they would be the worst team in the NL this season, and everyone was right. Who could win with this team?

Freddy Sanchez 2B .278
Rob Mackowiak CF .272
Jason Bay LF .299
Craig Wilson RF .274
Daryle Ward 1B .269
Ty Wigginton 3B .221
Humberto Cota C .238
Jack Wilson SS .242
Kip Wells P 4.62

DOES NEW ORLEANS HELP GIULIANI?

Nagin and Blanco sure make Rudy look good by comparison. I don't think either of them will be writing a book on leadership, although they might be the subject of some future b-school case study.

Will their failings help Giuliani should he seek the Republican nomination for POTUS '08?

Your Comments please.

BUSH, THE DOPE WHO SAVED THE ECONOMY - AGAIN

In another demonstration of confounding simplicity, Bush has treated the Strategic Petroleum Reserve as strategic.

The enlightened (just ask them) humanists just can't grasp that Bush says what he means and means what he says. It can't be simplicity, it must be duplicity or complicity. But whether a master of bottom-line synthesis or a simpleton, I love how often he turns out to be right at the expense of all the self-assured geniuses. Being right overcomes lack of nuance.

During last year’s campaign Kerry suggested the federal government “stop diverting oil to the Strategic Petroleum Reserve until gas prices get back to normal.” Since “normal” apparently translates to a number unconnected to the laws of supply and demand, it is safe to say once the oil was diverted it would not soon be replaced. If Kerry was hoping for China or India to suddenly de-industrialize, it could take a good long while to get back to “normal.”

Kerry was not alone or even the most extreme of the bunch. Throughout the campaign Carl Levin, Charles Schumer, and several other key Democrats openly endorsed using the nation’s strategic oil reserves to flood the market and drive down oil prices. Bush was ridiculed relentlessly by Schumer for refusing to budge from his November 2001 pledge to fill the reserves to capacity.

“That petroleum reserve is in place in case of major disruptions of energy supplies to the United States,” Bush told reporters when the idea of using it as a mechanism to lower gas prices began steadily gaining steam with Democrats eager to have a domestic issue — any domestic issue — to run on. “The idea of emptying the Strategic Petroleum Reserve would put America in a dangerous position in the war on terror. We face a tough and determined enemy on all fronts, and we must not put ourselves in a worse position in this war, and playing politics with the Strategic Petroleum Reserve would do just that.”

The Strategic Petroleum Reserve, housed in underground salt caverns in Texas and Louisiana, was created in 1975. It was bandied about Washington, D.C. for decades beforehand, but it took the final straw of the 1973-74 Middle Eastern oil embargo to force the issue. At the time of the September 11 attacks, the reserve held 540 million barrels. With uncertain times ahead, Bush ordered the reserve filled to its 700 million barrel-plus capacity, releasing only a minor amount to combat disruptions during Hurricane Lilli in 2002 and Hurricane Ivan last year.

Now Hurricane Katrina hits, and suddenly there is a real emergency crippling a quarter of the nation’s refining abilities. Democrats might argue that with 700 million barrels in storage we could have afforded to deal with both Katrina and flood the market. What else could Sen. Schumer have meant when he called Bush’s decision to release millions of barrels of oil from the reserve, “a tiny baby step when a giant step is required”?

These are supposed to be the forward-thinking vanguard of the country? Imagine if Katrina had been coupled with an opportunistic terrorist attack on another refinery. Or if Venezuela’s Hugo Chavez, smelling blood in the water (murderous brutes have
good noses for that sort of thing), decided to make good on his oil-embargo threat. An Iranian newspaper editorial recently described oil as “the most potent economic weapon for settling scores with neocolonialist countries.” (That’s us.) Democrats’ idea of thinking ahead is apparently throwing away the one shield we have against that weapon.

MAYOR AND GOVERNOR RIFT

NOLA Mayor Nagin interview w/Soledad O'Brien in which he says Gov. Blanco told the President she needed 24 hours to make a decision for Federal aid.

NAGIN: The president looked at me. I think he was a little surprised. He said, "No, you guys stay here. We're going to another section of the plane, and we're going to make a decision."

He called me in that office after that. And he said, "Mr. Mayor, I offered two options to the governor." I said -- and I don't remember exactly what. There were two options. I was ready to move today. The governor said she needed 24 hours to make a decision.

S. O'BRIEN: You're telling me the president told you the governor said she needed 24 hours to make a decision?

NAGIN: Yes.

S. O'BRIEN: Regarding what? Bringing troops in?

NAGIN: Whatever they had discussed. As far as what the -- I was abdicating a clear chain of command, so that we could get resources flowing in the right places.

S. O'BRIEN: And the governor said no.

NAGIN: She said that she needed 24 hours to make a decision. It would have been great if we could of left Air Force One, walked outside, and told the world that we had this all worked out. It didn't happen, and more people died.

MUSINGS ON THE SUPREME COURT

I wouldn't go celebrating the cultural restoration just yet. Let's do the math.

Replacing Rehnquist with Roberts is net neutral. That merely sustains three reliable votes for judicial restraint.

Even replacing O'Connor with a justice of a desirable stripe, assuming Bush is able to do that, nets four reliable votes, or a minority, with Kennedy remaining a swing vote.

Only by replacing Rehnquist AND O'Connor AND one of Kennedy, Ginsburg, Souter, Stevens or Breyer with a friendly vote gains a reliable majority. Can Bush do that, go 3 for 3? That is why the MSM is working so hard to erode Bush's political capital, trumpeting his low poll numbers and eroding support and so forth - so the liberal establishment can claim Bush lacks the public support, or mandate, or majority, or will of the people, to get his way on the Supreme Court. The battle is over the current and future Supreme Court vacancies. All else is secondary. All the nipping and sniping is posturing for the Supreme Court battle.

The jury is still out on whether Specter is friend or foe. That is an interesting side story.

Bush, as is his fashion, said after the election, "I have a mandate" and then shut up. I expect him to quietly attempt to go 3 for 3, and with a timely resignation or two on the bench, maybe hit for the cycle. He has been quietly stocking the federal bench with judicial conservatives for years.

Of course, in the grander scheme of things, none of this really matters. My job is to raise my little family the way I think best, regardless of external circumstances. There will always be plenty to rail about no matter who's in charge or who wears the robes.

BROKEN

A movie buff in my office dropped the following review in my Inbox this morning.

E, Please let your brother know that Broken Flowers, the Jim Jarmusch movie starring Bill Murray, is one of the worst I've seen in quite a while. Pretentious, s-l-o-w, and Bill Murray now taking himself seriously. Someone should let Jarmusch know that they have editors in Hollywood know. Are we too stupid to know that Bill Murray can travel from one girlfriend's house to another without seeing him in the airport, on the plane, renting a car, on the road, looking for each house...? Horrible.

In other movie news, I watched Spider-Man 2 last week, having heard nothing but rave reviews. Yet another movie reminding me to read books instead.

Bush Nominates Roberts for Chief Justice

President Bush on Monday nominated John Roberts to succeed William H. Rehnquist as chief justice and called on the Senate to confirm him before the Supreme Court opens its fall term on Oct. 3. Just 50 years old, Roberts could shape the court for decades to come.

The swift move would promote to the Supreme Court's top job a newcomer who currently is being considered as one of eight associate justices. It would also ensure a full 9-member court, because retiring Justice Sandra Day O'Connor has said she will remain on the job until her replacement is confirmed.

This is a great political move because it saves Bush a third fight with the Senate, though I would have been very happy to see Thomas or Scalia. If Roberts is a true constructionist, it will be a great choice for years to come.

THE DAY NOTHING CHANGED

Classic Mark Steyn.

The nation's taxpayers will now be asked to rebuild New Orleans. The rationale for doing so is that it is a great city of national significance. Fine. But, if it's of national significance, what have all the homeland security task forces been doing these last four years? Why is the defense of the city still left to a system of levees each with its own individual administrative regime? If it's of national significance, why did the porkmeisters of the national legislature and national executive branch slash a request by the Army Corps of Engineers for $105 million for additional flood protection measures there down to just over $40 million, at the same time they approved a $230 million bridge to an uninhabited Alaskan island? Given that the transport infrastructure's already in place, maybe it makes more sense to rebuild New Orleans in Alaska.

One thing that became clear two or three months after "the day (9-11)that everything changed" is that nothing changed -- that huge swathes of the political culture in America remain committed to a bargain that stiffs the people at every level, a system of lavish funding of pseudo-action. You could have done as the anti-war left wanted and re-allocated every dollar spent in Iraq to Louisiana. Or you could have done as some of the rest of us want and re-allocated every buck spent on, say, subsidizing Ted Turner's and Sam Donaldson's play-farming activities. But, in either case, I'll bet Louisiana's kleptocrat public service would have pocketed the dough and carried on as usual -- and, come the big day, the state would still have flopped out, and New Orleans' foul-mouthed mayor would still be ranting about why it was all everybody's else fault.

THE ROAD TO UTOPIA. . .

. . . is paved with reality.

If there is one central message that's clear from Hurricane Katrina and 911, it's that the government is a slow moving organism that is paralyzed by unexpected events. It's not the people who run government are thoughtless, careless or brainless, but that we have too many of them and they don't know how to coordinate with one another outside the established patterns.

Although politicians have convinced us that every human ill can be solved by the government, public employees have learned that such rhetoric comes and goes as do the elected representatives. You’ll notice that all big photo ops are the passing of some law named after some headline that the press has been beating into the ground. How many photo ops are created by solving a problem no one cares about today? Do you think anyone would have showed up two weeks ago for a Rose Garden signing of the Federal Levy strengthening act?

When you work for the government you're rarely there to solve problems, because the politicians that created you have long forgotten you. Instead, you find reasons to justify your promotion to the next level. This is usually achieved by not rocking the boat. Unfortunately, the creative thinking that needs to take place to foresee tragic events requires that someone rock the boat. Now who is going to do that? Instead everyone takes the CYA route. Create a system, follow the system, and scratch head when system results in disaster. As long as you can show the tracks A to B to C to D, then you were just doing your job and not to blame.

The Mayor of New Orleans waited too long for the mandatory evacuation. He of all people must know that his town is full of poor people who rely on public transportation. But even if he did call the evacuation a day early, I don’t think he had realistic plan of what to do with the masses that couldn’t leave. The reason he didn’t have a plan is that the mayor before him didn’t have a plan either. It’s these kinds of failures of vision that are common in all levels of government. Now if this guy had been a Republican they would be calling him a racist for not foreseeing the disaster. Instead, he’s painted as a victim of the next available Republican. Let’s see, we have a Democrat governor, a Democrat Senator, a green Republican Senator that no one recognizes on TV and finally that guy we’ve been beating up for not talking to the lady in Crawford. Aha, I knew we’d find a Republican at the root of this if we looked hard enough.

I’ve heard that Bush’s refusal to sign Kyoto created the hurricane. I’ve heard that Federal funding cuts kept them from repairing the levy. I’ve heard that President Bush is vacationing in Texas and doesn’t care about the victims because he is a racist. It’s a multiple choice and you’re allowed to hate Bush for any and all of these reasons. What we cannot do is discuss possible fault from the mayor or governor who are beyond reproach and only want what is best for people.

Voices on TV were complaining the other night about lack of food and water and they wondered why we could parachute supplies to Afghanistan and not the Superdome. What they forget is how long it took for us to make those drops. It took us weeks to invade Afghanistan and a year and half to invade Iraq. The government doesn’t respond quickly to new situations.

One thing more. Louisiana voted for Bush in 2000 and 2004, but New Orleans voted for Gore and Kerry and they voted for a Mayor who waited to evacuated the city with about 12 hours notice. Instead of expecting results from a guy you didn’t believe in to begin with, why not ask why your choice as city leader was caught with his pants down? And maybe that’s just it. The louder we scream that Bush hates New Orleans it might obscure the fact that New Orleans elected a guy who was the first in a chain of mistakes and compounded problems. The media isn’t going to look there for the answer. They’ve found their Republican to hang the blame on.

But the next time they fill out their ballots, maybe citizens of large one-party cities should ask themselves if they’re hiring a real leader or a guy the political machine just spit up. After all, Bush will be gone in 2009 and with Hillary in the White House someone local might be needed to take the blame.

WASHING AWAY

The Times-Picayune ran a 5-part series in 2002 on the preparedness, likelihood and impact of a major hurricane hitting the city. Read it here.

BUSH A DUNCE (NEVER FORGET), AND LAZY AND ABSENT TOO

ABC News online, quoting President Bush from his appearance this morning on Good Morning America:

"We've gotta get a handle on this from the human dimension, first and foremost," Bush said.

Note the editorial decision to quote Bush as saying "gotta" rather than the clear meaning, "got to." Is there any point to that other than to diminish the president? Would they quote Jesse Jackson or Al Sharpton or John McCain that way?

The article makes prominent mention of the fact that Bush just returned ("two days early" -- implication: not fast enough) from a monthlong vacation. I struggle to make any connection between the length of his vacation and his comments relating to the hurricane.

Meanwhile New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin is out doing what Dems do best -- blaming the federal government. He's no Giuliani, that much is clear. I don't remember Rudi telling an international audience he was "goddamn pissed."

Not that Nagin doesn't have a point. I do wonder how FEMA can conduct scenario-planning for this very disaster and then fail as conspicuously as they have here.

The good news, if there is any, is that we are about to learn a lot about how to respond to a major terror attack on a large U.S. city. Let's just hope a special bilateral commission doesn't handle that job.