This makes sense on the surface: "gosh, those
poor businesses, having to pay taxed to feed the
poor rather than use the capital expand their
enterprise". Go beyond the buzzwords and right
wing political correctness and the argument makes
no sense: The reason Minnesota has all these
companies is that our highly educated workforce
can drive to work from safe neighborhoods through
clean air around beautiful lakes.
The exact opposite of the Republican
talking point is true: Minnesota is business
friendly because we have citizens willing
to pay for the better things in life. Two OpEd
pieces in today's conservative Startribune
(5/20/07) make this point.
Do
state taxes really make the wealthy walk? by
Charlie Quimby and Dane Smith. Minneapolis
StarTribune May 20, 2007 (the STrib doesn't keep
stories online for long, so I'm going to quote a
lot of it):
Those who claim a progressive tax
system will drive away millionaires should look
at the facts.
The rich are leaving! The rich are leaving!
We all heard those dire warnings trotted out
to justify Gov. Tim Pawlenty's veto last week of
an income tax increase on the wealthy that would
have provided property tax relief.
If Minnesota raises the top income tax rate,
goes this refrain, wealthy citizens will flee the
state, businesses will take jobs elsewhere, and
entrepreneurs will be discouraged from coming
here.
Seductive low-tax states like Florida, Texas and
Arizona are primed to pluck more of our most
prosperous retirees, like the recently departed
executive Bill Cooper. South Dakota is preparing
welcoming parties for our beleaguered businesses.
And thanks to the veto, we were spared the
spectacle of caravans of limos, Hummers and
Citations streaming over our borders -- "The
Grapes of Wrath,"
Chˆ¢teau-Lafite-Rothschild-style.
But is it true?
Call it tried but not true, lacking in
foundation. It's a worn-out argument that has
always been thrown up against a more progressive
tax system. But unless you already believe that
taxes are the root of all evil, it's impossible
to look at the evidence and conclude that an
income tax increase at the top would set off a
massive millionaire migration from Minnesota.
Take businesses leaving the state. It is such a
nonproblem, the Department of Employment and
Economic Development doesn't even track business
departures. When it did measure business
outmigration, for nine years in the 1990s,
Minnesotans paid higher income taxes and about
1.5 percent more of our income for government
services than we do today. If businesses were
going to flee the state because of taxes, that
was the time to do it.
Yet during that period, only 95 manufacturers
moved out of state, totaling an approximate peak
employment of fewer than 5,000 workers. Over the
same nine years, Minnesota gained nearly 400,000
jobs. In 1996, when our price of government was
near its all-time high, we ranked ninth among
states for business expansions and 48th for
business dissolutions. In other words, high-tax
Minnesota offered very good conditions for
business success.
A 1997 study by the conservative Center of the
American Experiment identified 279 Minnesota
manufacturing firms that had relocated, expanded
or started business outside the state over a
27-year period. Ninety-six could not be found at
the time of the study, so presumably some of the
transplants did not go well.
Was income tax a factor? The study doesn't answer
the question directly. But more than half the
companies cited moved to Wisconsin and Iowa,
where income tax rates were not much different
from Minnesota's.
What about small, nonmanufacturing businesses?
Assistant House Minority Leader Brad Finstad,
R-Comfrey, warned that the Legislature's proposal
to raise the marginal tax rate on individual
incomes above $226,000 "will affect 59 percent of
Minnesota small-business owners and
employers."
The effects will mostly be fright from overheated rhetoric.
Small-business owners typically report business
income as personal income. In 2004, less than 4
percent of such returns filed in Minnesota
reported more than $200,000 adjusted gross income
from a business.
Small businesses typically rely on local
connections -- their social networks, proximity
to thriving companies and potential
collaborators, intimate understanding of
customers and ability to find good employees. How
many successful owners would risk uprooting
themselves from the source of their prosperity to
save a few bucks on taxes?
....
Despite what the antitax echo chamber tells
us, the world does not revolve around taxes. Life
changes -- college graduation, decisions to have
children, job opportunities and retirement -- are
the real sparks to decisions about leaving a
place. And good schools, access to health care,
quality employers, functional infrastructure and
a pleasant environment are reasons for
staying.
....
We are already investing less of the state's
income in maintaining these underpinnings of
prosperity. If you think hanging onto a few
retiring millionaires will keep Minnesota great,
then there's some land in Florida you might want
to buy.
One might think a real newspaper with
journalistic integrity would incorporate facts in
their news stories, but they tend to just sling
whatever the right wing wants to. The front page
of the STrib looks like a poorly designed
Republican web site (complete with cursor and
"feel good" stories taking up column inches).
The shift to the right has cost the paper dearly:
It's losing money and circulation (Minnesotans
aren't that stupid), as are most of the
conservative "news" media, and they are going to
have to lay off people. Gosh, who will remain at
the paper? The right wingers or the real
reporters? Hmmm...
Governor Jesse Ventura wasn't the joke some
thought he would be: He was a hard worker who
did some good things. But ultimately, he failed
to spark a third party alternative and he took
the Minnesota budget from a billion dollar
surplus to a four and a quarter billion dollar
deficit. One of the prime architects of that
huge deficit was Republican Party Majority Leader
of the Minnesota House of Representatives, Tim
Pawlenty. Pawlenty, riding the anti-tax
sentiment that clenched so many sphincters, won
became governor in 2002 and squeaked by to be
reelected in 2006. He balanced the budget (as
required by the state's Constitution) but with a
lot of duct tape and promises for a bright future
that hasn't materialized under the failed Bush
budget. Pawlenty's been around long enough to
see just how bad his leadership has been.
On the same Opinion Exchange page as the
Quimby and Smith essay is a column by Lori
Sturdevant, Weighed
down still by budget cuts of '03. Star
Tribune May 20, 2007. Again, the STrib doesn't
keep pages up for long, so I'm going to quote
much of it:
This legislative session, there was no
escaping the long shadow of that big deficit
year.
Rep. Nora Slawik lost sleep last week, trying
to nurse early childhood education provisions
into the final E-12 education bill. But the gloom
in her voice at midweek bespoke more frustration
than fatigue.
"All the innovation is gone," the Maplewood DFLer
ruefully reported. When the little bit of money
left for early ed was allocated, it would stretch
only far enough to restore funding to pre-2003
levels for Head Start, School Readiness, Early
Childhood Family Education.
Those are proven programs. They ought to be as
least as robust as they were in 2002. Still, not
being able to apply new ideas and money to an
emerging need "feels like treading water," Slawik
said. "It's not getting ahead."
The story was much the same as other big bills
were put in final form last week. When shiny new
ideas went head-to-head with embedded programs
that had been hit hard in the big deficit year of
2003, the chrome fell off.
Four years and two general elections have passed.
Yet still present in nearly every conference
committee room this year were the spending cuts
made by the 2003 Legislature and Gov. Tim
Pawlenty to close a $4.5 billion deficit without
raising state taxes. Those decisions were this
session's inescapable context.
The governor and some legislators want to push
high school reform? Not so fast, said the school
districts. You can't start something new until
you repair the damage the 2003 freeze in special
ed funding is doing to our bottom lines.
The Legislature's 2020 Conference likes cash
incentives for families to care for frail elderly
relatives? Not now, when the 2003 cuts have a
third of the state's nursing homes on the brink
of closure.
Pawlenty and the Private College Council have an
idea for getting more high school kids to take
college-prep classes? We can't put millions into
an unproven scheme like that, and let tuition at
state colleges keep climbing into the
stratosphere, legislators said.
....
New ideas that build on an intact
government-services infrastructure were stopped
by evidence that Minnesota doesn't have one
anymore.
"I keep hearing that we should be more like
business, and that businesses both cut expenses
and invest in new things," said Rep. Mindy
Greiling, DFL-Roseville, the House K-12 finance
chair. "I don't know. I don't think too many
businesses let their whole plant crumble in order
to improve the landscaping."
Her analogy would be more apt if the proposed
investments were merely aesthetic improvements.
They weren't. Several are responses to the
biggest challenge this generation of lawmakers
faces -- preparing for a future in which
prosperity will depend more than ever on a
well-educated workforce, even as the average age
of the population becomes older than ever.
War In Iraq was
supposed to pay for itself, but reality got in
the way
Remember the war against Franco?
That's the kind where each of us belongs.
Though he may have won all the battles,
We had all the good songs.
Ah, but Lehrer was singing of a different war,
a different quagmire, a different kind of
protest. Here in the Aughts, the Loyal Bushies
went to war in Iraq and claimed it would pay
for itself. Few casualties, they said, and
it would all be over soon and the US would be
greeted as liberators.
The truth was far different. Were the
conservatives merely incompetent, or were they
deliberately lying to pull the wool over the eyes
of gullible Republicans? In either case, the
exact opposite of Loyal Bushie predictions
has come to pass.
Budget Director Mitch Daniels: "The
United States is committed to helping Iraq
recover from the conflict, but Iraq will not
require sustained aid." [Source: Washington Post,
4/21/03]
Deputy Defense Secretary Paul Wolfowitz:
"There's a lot of money to pay for this that
doesn't have to be U.S. taxpayer money, and it
starts with the assets of the Iraqi people 'and
on a rough recollection, the oil revenues of that
country could bring between $50 and $100 billion
over the course of the next two or three
years.' We're dealing with a country that can
really finance its own reconstruction, and
relatively soon." [Source: House Committee on
Appropriations Hearing on a Supplemental War
Regulation, 3/27/03]
Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld: "If you
[Source: worry about just] the cost, the money,
Iraq is a very different situation from
Afghanistan'ĶIraq has oil. They have financial
resources." [Source: Fortune Magazine, Fall
2002]
These guys are so incredibly inept and/or
corrupt that they tried to convince YOU that a
war in Iraq would make money for the US.
The sad part is, many sphincter conservatives
bought the whole thing, lock, stock and trillion
US tax dollars. Here on planet Earth, the Iraq
was has been an expensive, morally unjustified
quagmire.
WASHINGTON -- A new congressional
analysis shows the Iraq war is now costing
taxpayers almost $2 billion a week -- nearly
twice as much as in the first year of the
conflict three years ago and 20 percent more than
last year -- as the Pentagon spends more on
establishing regional bases to support the
extended deployment and scrambles to fix or
replace equipment damaged in combat.
The upsurge occurs as the total cost of military
operations at home and abroad since 2001,
including the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, will
top half a trillion dollars, according to an
internal assessment by the nonpartisan
Congressional Research Service completed last
week.
The spike in operating costs -- including a 20
percent increase over last year in Afghanistan,
where the mission now costs about $370 million a
week -- comes even though troop levels in both
countries have remained stable. The reports
attribute the rising costs in part to a higher
pace of fighting in both countries, where
insurgents and terrorists have increased their
attacks on US and coalition troops and
civilians.
Another major factor, however, is ``the building
of more extensive infrastructure to support
troops and equipment in and around Iraq and
Afghanistan," according to the report. Based on
Defense Department data, the report suggests that
the construction of so-called semi-permanent
support bases has picked up in recent months,
making it increasingly clear that the US military
will have a presence in both countries for years
to come.
The United States maintains it is not building
permanent military bases in Iraq or Afghanistan,
where the local population distrusts America's
long-term intentions.
But for the first time, a major factor in the
growth of war spending is the result of a
dramatic rise in ``investment costs," or spending
needed to sustain a long-term deployment of
American troops in the two countries, the report
said. These include the additional purchases of
protective equipment for troops, such as armored
Humvees, radios, and night-vision equipment; new
tanks and other equipment to replace battered
gear from Army and Marine Corps units that have
been deployed numerous times in recent years; and
growing repair bills for damaged equipment, what
the military calls ``reset" costs.
At least one lawmaker, referring to reports of
equipment shortages in the war zones and at US
bases where troops are training for combat, says
some of the spending is misplaced. "While we are
spending billions in Iraq to build and maintain
massive bases, we cannot [effectively] repair our
abused equipment or replace it," US
Representative Martin T. Meehan , a Lowell
Democrat and member of the House Armed Services
Committee, said in a statement.
We're in Iraq for the long haul. So much for
"shock and awe". The Sitting Duck Republicans
want to have our brave troops cower behind fancy
sandbags and unsafe
Humvees. Indeed, the Bushies are so bad at
protecting our troops that Humvee
doors can trap troops and "The Army is fixing
the doors of every armored Humvee in combat in
Iraq because they can jam shut during an attack
and trap soldiers inside". But that's a
different essay, another sordid story from the
ranks of the cowardly conservatives who waive the
flag while sending ill-equipped soldiers to fight
the wrong war. Meanwhile...
The cost of the Iraq war could top $US2
trillion ($A2.66 trillion), far above the US
administration's pre-war projections, according
to a new study.
The study takes into account long-term costs such
as lifetime health care for thousands of wounded
US soldiers.
Columbia University economist Joseph E Stiglitz
and Harvard lecturer Linda Bilmes included the
disability payments for the 16,000 wounded US
soldiers, about 20 per cent of whom suffer
serious brain or spinal injuries.
They said US taxpayers will be burdened with costs that linger long after US
troops withdraw.
Bush's first impulse is always to run away,
and his second impulse is always to lie about it.
Running away from 9/11 to invade Iraq, he simply
lied about the cost of fighting the war and the
long-term cost to the US. This doesn't take into
account the loss of prestige and ceding the moral
high ground to some very evil people.
The war is about, among other things, oil.
Bush and his Saudi/Chinese handlers figured to
get their hands on a large supply. The failure
to get cheap oil was probably a major factor in
the Democratic takeover of Congress. It's hard
to believe that Rove and co. are really that
stupid, but it's clear that they went into Iraq
expecting a major oil boom and the exact
opposite happened.
Between 100,000 and 300,000 barrels a day
of Iraq's declared oil production over the past
four years is unaccounted for and could have been
siphoned off through corruption or smuggling,
according to a draft American government
report.
Using an average of $50 a barrel, the report said
the discrepancy was valued at $5 million to $15
million daily.
The report does not give a final conclusion on
what happened to the missing fraction of the
roughly two million barrels pumped by Iraq each
day, but the findings are sure to reinforce
longstanding suspicions that smugglers,
insurgents and corrupt officials control
significant parts of the country's oil
industry.
The report also covered alternative explanations
for the billions of dollars worth of
discrepancies, including the possibility that
Iraq has been consistently overstating its oil
production.
Also a Tip O' The Hat to Greg Palast, who has
been doing real journalism while the US media has
been reading Karl Rove handouts. Not only has
the Iraq was already cost the US taxpayers
half a trillion dollars, it's going to cost a lot
more. Whenever someone tries to tell Bush, he's
fired. W. claims to get good advice, but the
exact opposite is true: He doesn't listen to
anyone who disagrees with him.
George Bush is trying to save Paul
Wolfowitz' job as President of the World Bank
even after the vulpine neo-con was caught
slipping a load of World Bank loot to his love
interest, Shaha Ali Riza.
Big deal. Yes, Wolfowitz shouldn't have been
greasing his cookie sheet with government funds,
but there are bigger reasons to toss The Wolf out
the door.
Like, say, perjury and homicide? I haven't
forgotten, Mr. Wolfowitz, that on March 27, 2003
you testified before the US Congress that the
occupation of Iraq wouldn't cost the American
taxpayer a penny.
You said, "There's a lot of money to pay for this
that doesn't have to be U.S. taxpayer money." Oh,
really?
When Wolfowitz laid down that line of jive, he
and the Bushes knew that Americans just can't
pass up a bargain, and here The Wolf was offering
the sale of the century, a "free Iraq." Not
"free" as in "self-governing" but "free" as in,
we'll get their oil and their allegiance for
nothing!
We can bomb Iraq and the Iraqis will pay for the bombs!
And where will the Iraqis, holding nothing but
bushel-bags of Saddam dinars, get these billionsof
US dollars to pay for the Occupation?
Wolfowitz testified, "The oil revenues of that
country could bring between $50 and $100 billion
over the next two or three years."
Is that so?
Wolfie's claim was no small matter. It's hard to
remember, but lots of the Congressional debate
was not about Saddam's Weapons of Mass
Destruction -- the New York Times had already
found those for us. Senators were asking, What's
this little war going to cost us? There was no
way in hell Congress would have authorized Bush's
big adventure if it cost $100 billion.
Indeed, $100 billion was the price projected by
the President's chief economist, Larry Lindsey.
The President corrected Lindsey's math: Bush
fired him.
You know the punchline: The war has so far cost
the U.S. taxpayer over half a trillion dollars -
and counting.
But you weren't wrong, Wolfie. You were lying. And you knew it.
This is serious stuff. I can tell you, as a
former government racketeering investigator: if
you are wrong, well, stuff happens. But if you
say one thing under oath but knew something very
different, that, Mr. Wolfowitz, is perjury.
Perjury's a felony, Wolf, and you know it.
Indeed, your neo-con buddy, Elliott Abrams, was
convicted in 1991 for lying to Congress about
Reagan's arms-for-hostage swap.
Gleaned from Diaries on the invaluable DailyKos.com
Bush likes to tout his tax cuts for the rich
as helping the economy, but the exact
opposite is true. Most Americans spend more
to get less. We are less secure, financially and
otherwise. Bush has the lowest job creation
record since Hoover.
For millions of hard-working,
middle-class families, life under the Bush
presidency has grown less affordable and less
secure. ¬ÝPresident Bush's record of fiscal
incompetence and mismanagement, and Republicans'
close ties with special interests, have helped
lead to both lower wages on the one hand and
skyrocketing costs for basic necessities like
gas, health care, and college tuition on the
other. ¬ÝUnfortunately, instead of producing
solutions to the problems facing the middle
class, Bush Republicans have ignored them and
pushed for policies that would make matters even
worse.>
In addition to tightening the squeeze on
families, Republican policies have made our
entire nation less financially secure.
¬ÝRepublicans increased our debt to nearly $9
trillion and have insisted on spending billions
of dollars every year on budget-busting tax
breaks for special interests and
multi-millionaires. The Bush Administration also
continues to compromise our economic security by
increasing our reliance on foreign investment
from in China, Japan, and Dubai.
....
Gas prices have climbed over $3 a
gallon. Prices at the gas pump have jumped
107 percent from $1.47 per gallon the week
President Bush took office in January 2001[3] to
$ 3.05 in the latest week of energy price data.
The price for a barrel of oil has more than
doubled during the Bush Administration from
$30.63 in January 2001 to $65.26 in April 2007.
The average household with children will spend
about $3,887 on transportation fuel costs this
year, an increase of 104 percent or $1,984 over
2001 costs.
....
College education costs have risen by 44
percent. Average tuition, fees, room, and
board costs at four-year private universities
have increased by $6,786 from $22,240 in the
2000-2001 academic year to $29,026 in the
2005-2006 academic year. ¬ÝTuition, fees, room,
and board charges at four-year public colleges
grew more rapidly between 2000-2001 and
2005-2006, after adjusting for inflation, than
during any other five-year period since 1975.
Total costs jumped from $8,439 in 2000-2001 to
$12,127 in 2005-2006 'Äì an increase of $3,688,
or 44 percent.
....
While families work harder, their wages
continue to decline. Middle-class families
are working harder and earning less today than
they were at the start of the Bush
Administration. According to the Wall Street
Journal, "Since the end of the recession of 2001,
a lot of the growth in GDP per person 'Äì that
is, productivity 'Äì has gone to profits, not
wages." Median household income, adjusted for
inflation, has declined $1,273 from $47,599 in
2000 to $46,326 in 2005.
....
Worst job creation record since Hoover
Administration. ¬ÝA growing economy should be
good news for those seeking jobs. ¬ÝBut over the
course of President Bush's term in office, his
Administration has the worst overall job creation
record since Herbert Hoover more than 70 years
ago.
Overall non-farm payroll employment has increased
by just 5.2 million since President Bush took
office in January 2001 compared with 22.7 million
during the Clinton presidency. ¬ÝOverall
employment growth has averaged just 70,000 per
month under President Bush 'Äì much lower than
the approximately 150,000 jobs needed each month
to keep up with population growth. ¬ÝIt was not
uncommon to see monthly job gains of 300,000 and
even 400,000 during economic expansions under
previous Administrations.
Even the extreme conservatives at the Wall
Street Journal are getting worried that the Bush
economy is the exact opposite of what was
promised in 2001.
WASHINGTON -- Until January, President
Bush seldom acknowledged the widening gap between
the rich and the middle class. Then, in a speech,
he declared: "I know some of our citizens worry
about the fact that our dynamic economy is
leaving working people behind. ...Income
inequality is real." He has raised the subject
several times since.
This isn't a sudden change in Mr. Bush's economic
philosophy, but rather a change in tactics forced
by the changing political environment, say
current and former administration officials and
outsiders in touch with the White House.
As always, Bush ran away ("seldom
acknowledges") from the problem and eventually
adds a dollop of truthiness to the make the spin
come out as lies ("change in tactics").
A subscription required for full WSJ article,
so here's the DailyKos Diary from Jerome a Paris,
The
one graph that damns the Bush economy. I'll
let you look at the graphs. It's worse than you
think.
The incompetence
and corruption of the Bush administration is too
much for one person
I've been doing political columns on Bartcop-E
for seven weeks in a row, and my list of The
Exact Opposite subjects is longer than it was
after the first week. I wish there were real
journalists in the US, or that they would pay me
to do this full time.
Thanks to everyone who has sent me
music to play on the air.
--////
"You know what your problem is? You never been in a war. In my
generation, we saw death. Contemplated our own mortality when we
were young, so we didn't have to waste the rest of our lives worrying
about it. We realized that death takes care of itself. It's life
that needs your attention." -- Joe's dead father to shooting survivor
son's imagination, "Medium"
The lost language of kickball (advocate.com)
For some gay and lesbian adults, having been chosen last in P.E. class inflicts a wound they still feel today, keeping them from enjoying sports and wreaking havoc on their self-esteem. Judy Kamilhor examines the "chosen-last syndrome" and other traumatic childhood sports experiences-and shows how to overcome them.
What really killed Jerry Falwell? (out.com)
Jerry Falwell made life miserable for us gays with his hateful rhetoric and the way he rallied the "Christians" against us. Now that he's dead, we're wondering what really killed him off. You know a hardened old goat like he was didn't go down easy. So did he go the way of Mama Cass? Michael Hutchence? Or did a certain purple pal with a red purse do him in? Tell us what you think did him in.
My landlord pulled a fast one. I live on a 20 acre property and he posted an eviction notice somewhere I don't normally go so I had no opportunity to reply in a timely manner. It's turned into a notice to vacate from the county sheriff, which means unless a miracle happens, we've got to be out of here in four days, by Tuesday, May 22, which is why putting out an issue on Monday isn't a priority. Not quite like being surrounded by fire but close. Same actions. Piling all the important stuff outside.
You think YOU'RE bored with my personal problems? Believe me, it was never my intention to broadcast my flagrant inability to get my shit together. You'd think by now someone would be paying me for something. It's not your fault there's nowhere for me to turn but my computer.
Panic mode rapidly approaching. Me, two sons, a Siamese cat, a desert tortoise, and a python named Monty, flowing with the tide, looking for somewhere to go, ready to relocate anywhere, separately or in a set, just putting out the word. An island in Bahrain would be nice. Anybody got a barn?
MD
"Wouldn't this be a great world if insecurity and desperation made us more attractive? If 'needy' were a turn-on?"
- Albert Brooks as Aaron Altman in Broadcast News -
Thanks, Vic!
In the immortal words of guest critic Billy Sol Hurok (John Candy) on SCTV's Farm Report to host Big Jim McBob (Joe Flaherty), 'That blowed up real good.'
Purple Gene's review of the A&E channel's 3rd season series "Criss Angel: Mind Freak". Directed by Criss Angel:
He looks like he belongs on the cover of a Romance Novel like Fabbio….he talks like a New Yorker who is a New Age Narcissist and he performs like a cross between "Jack Ass" and "Houdini"…..I'm talking about Criss Angel….born again Musician, Mentalist, Magician, Illusionist, Hypnotist, Escapologist and all around long haired super buff Stunt Man…..I caught his Show on the A&E cable channel today…an episode called "Body Suspension"….Criss, with his gang of wacky weirdo's, is practicing piercing his body with 8 huge fish hooks to be later lifted up by Helecoptor and hung in mid-air over the "Valley of Fire" somewhere near Las Vegas……….
Some of his other episodes include……
"Chicken"…………Criss gets himself hit by a speeding car.
"Buried Alive"…….Criss (with the help of Rob Zombie) is put 6 feet under.
"Walk on Glass"…..Criss plans and executes a stroll over broken glass.
"Blind Drive"………Criss puts on a blindfold and drives through town.
"Lightening Strike"...Criss sets up a million Volt Teslacoil and get zapped.
"C 4 Explosion"……..Criss gets his ass blown with plastic explosives..cool.
I wasn't sure how to react when I watched a seemingly meditative Criss mimicking a Sioux Warrior at a Sun Dance and as he is hoisted he seems to be going through a religious experience as well as a thrill for the camera and a big fucking paycheck.
With music in the background blaring …..Criss himself with his band "AngelDust" is screaming the lyrics….
I am a mindfreak
There's no reality
Just this world of illusion
That keeps on turning me
I am the mindfreak
Are you ready?
Up up and away as Criss does his Mantra and the camera follows his sado-masochistic and sexy sillouette over the deep canyon just as the sun is setting…
This is the new, Heavy Metal, mind boggling, and ridiculous Reality TV….all the stations are competing for something that sells…and Criss Angel is HOT.
Purple Gene gives "Criss Angel: MindFreak" 5 death defying daunting and delusional dramas out of 10 for being so pitifully pretentious and heroically half-assed. (Criss's real Bronx name is Nicolas Sarantakos)
P.S. Criss will probably do an episode called "Russian Roulette"!
That's one heck of a coastal eddy - the marine layer never burned off, resulting in a pleasant, cooler than seasonal, day.
Tonight, Monday:
CBS opens the night with a RERUN'2½ Men', followed by another RERUN'2½ Men', then still another RERUN'2½ Men', followed by yet another RERUN'2½ Men', then a RERUN'CSI: The 2nd One'.
Scheduled on a FRESHDave are Rudolph Giuliani, Mike West, and Jesus & Mary Chain.
Scheduled on a FRESHCraig are Lance Burton and Matt Serra.
NBC begins the night with a FRESH'Deal Or No Deal', followed by the SEASON FINALE'Heroees', then a FRESH'Law & Order: Criminal Intent'.
Scheduled on a FRESHLeno are Simon Cowell, 95-year-old college graduate Nola Ochs, and Maroon 5.
Scheduled on a FRESHConan are Chris "Ludacris" Bridges, Dominic Monaghan, and Rickie Lee Jones.
On a RERUNCarson Daly (from 4/24/07) are Luke Wilson and the Format.
ABC starts the night with a FRESH'Dancing With The Stars', followed by a FRESH 2-hour 'The Bachelor'.
Scheduled on a FRESHJimmy Kimmel are Ozzy Osbourne and Samantha Harris.
The CW offers a RERUN'Everybody Hates Chris', followed by a RERUN'All Of Us', then a RERUN'Girlfriends', followed by a RERUN'The Game'.
Faux has the 2-hour SEASON FINALE'24'.
MY fills the night with a FRESH'IFL Battleground'.
A&E has 'CSI: The 2nd One', another 'CSI: The 2nd One', 'The Sopranos', and more 'The Sopranos'.
AMC offers the movie 'Independence Day', followed by the movie 'The Broken Trail'.
BBC -
[12:00 PM] Gordon Ramsay's F Word - Episode 1;
[1:00 PM] What Not To Wear - Ep. 1 Tribes of Man;
[1:30 PM] What Not To Wear - Ep. 2 Liz Traves;
[2:00 PM The Weakest Link - Episode 15;
[3:00 PM] How Clean Is Your House? - Episode 4;
[3:30 PM] How Clean Is Your House? - Episode 5;
[4:00 PM] Changing Rooms - Episode 3;
[4:30 PM] Changing Rooms - Ep. 13 Shropshire;
[5:00 PM] Whose Line Is It Anyway? - TBA;
[5:30 PM] Whose Line Is It Anyway? - TBA;
[6:00 PM] The Weakest Link - Episode 16;
[7:00 PM] BBC World News - BBC World News;
[7:30 PM] How Clean Is Your House? - Episode 8;
[8:00 PM] Waking the Dead - Episode 5;
[10:00 PM] Footballers Wive$ - Episode 9;
[11:00 PM] Waking the Dead - Episode 5;
[1:00 AM] Footballers Wive$ - Episode 9;
[2:00 AM] The Weakest Link - Episode 16;
[3:00 AM] The Night Detective - Episode 1;
[4:00 AM] The Night Detective - Episode 2;
[5:00 AM] The Night Detective - Episode 3;
[6:00 AM] BBC World News - BBC World News. (ALL TIMES EDT)
Bravo has 'Inside The Actors Studio', another 'Inside The Actors Studio', and the movie 'Crocodile Dundee'.
Comedy Central has 'Scrubs', another 'Scrubs', an old 'Jon Stewart', an old 'Colbert Report', 'Reno 911!', 'South Park', 'Scrubs', and another 'Scrubs'.
Scheduled on a FRESHJon Stewart is Zaki Chehab.
Scheduled on a FRESHColbert Report is Jared Diamond.
FX has the movie 'The Punisher', followed by a FRESH'The Riches'.
History has 'Howard Hughes Tech', 'UFO Files: UFO Hot Spots', 'Cities Of The Underworld', and 'Secrets Of The Nasca Lines'.
IFC -
[06:20 AM] Digging To China;
[08:05 AM] Kingdom Come;
[09:45 AM] Red Bull Ride to the Hills;
[10:15 AM] The Daytrippers;
[11:50 AM] Digging To China;
[01:35 PM] Kingdom Come;
[03:15 PM] IFC News Special;
[03:25 PM] The Daytrippers;
[05:00 PM] Digging To China;
[06:45 PM] Ed Wood;
[09:00 PM] This So-Called Disaster;
[10:35 PM] Jesus' Son;
[12:30 AM] Red Bull Ride to the Hills;
[01:00 AM] This So-Called Disaster;
[02:35 AM] Jesus' Son;
[04:30 AM] Suckers. (ALL TIMES EDT)
Sundance -
[06:00 AM] With No Direction Home;
[06:00 AM] Where Angels Fear to Tread;
[08:00 AM] Sabah;
[10:00 AM] The Tesseract;
[11:00 AM] When We Were Kings;
[01:00 PM] Make It Real (to me);
[02:00 PM] Condo Painting;
[03:00 PM] Broken Column;
[04:00 PM] Trudell;
[06:00 PM] Tierney Gearon: The Mother Project;
[07:00 PM] Episode 5;
[08:00 PM] (Episode 3);
[09:00 PM] A House in Jerusalem;
[10:00 PM] When We Were Kings;
[12:00 AM] The Heart is Deceitful Above All Things;
[01:00 AM] Acacia;
[03:00 AM] K;
[05:00 AM] The Tesseract. (ALL TIMES EDT)
Actress Sharon Stone laughs as she arrives for a gala screening of the film "Chacun son Cinema" at the 60th Cannes Film Festival May 20, 2007.
Photo by Victor Tonelli
Ain't no party like a Scranton party. That's what "The Office" stars Brian Baumgartner and Angela Kinsey told a breakfast crowd as they visited the city where the NBC sitcom is set. The line was uttered this season by Steve Carell, who plays the buffoonish regional manager at Dunder Mifflin Paper Co.
Baumgartner and Kinsey, who play accountants Kevin and Angela, arrived Friday and toured some of the city's watering holes - including Poor Richards Pub at South Side Bowl, Coopers Seafood House, Farley's and The Bog, most of which have been mentioned on the show.
"Office" cast member Rainn Wilson, who plays Dwight Schrute, visited the city in December.
From left, Canadian director Atom Egoyan, New Zealand director Jane Campion and American director Michael Cimino arrive for the screening of the film 'Chacun Son Cinema' ('To Each His Own Cinema'), at the 60th International film festival in Cannes, southern France, on Sunday, May 20, 2007.
Photo by Lionel Cironneau
Fats Domino took the stage before a sold-out crowd of hundreds in a New Orleans nightclub Saturday, marking the Rock and Roll Hall of Famer's first public performance since Hurricane Katrina.
Dressed in a snappy white jacket, the 79-year-old New Orleans icon was crisp and energetic as he sang and played the piano. The crowd jumped and screamed when he belted out "Blueberry Hill." Domino was accompanied by his longtime friend and musical partner saxophonist Herbert Hardesty. The pair have been playing together since the mid-1940s.
Domino, whose real name is Antoine, lost his home, his pianos, his gold and platinum records, and much of the city he loves during Katrina. He was rescued by boat from his flooded 9th Ward home after the storm struck on Aug. 29, 2004.
Actor Rupert Everett took inspiration from Camilla Parker Bowles when preparing for the part of the headmistress in a remake of the classic schoolgirl comedy "St. Trinian's."
The 47-year-old actor, appearing at the Cannes Film Festival to promote the movie, which is currently in production, called the wife of Britain's Prince Charles "my type of girl."
"She's a marvelous woman," he said at a news conference. "She strides around, she works in the garden and she goes out to parties. She wears nice hats and dresses, she has wonky teeth, she's got a sense of humor, she likes a drink and a cigarette."
Everett plays the headmistress, originally performed by Alastair Sim when the first "St. Trinian's" film was released in 1954.
Chocolate maker Mars apologised on Sunday for a widely mocked decision to use animal products in chocolate bars and said in future its candy would be suitable for vegetarians.
The company said it was reversing a decision announced last week to change its chocolate recipe to include trace amounts of rennet, a natural enzyme produced from the stomachs of calves which is used in traditional cheese and chocolate making.
That recipe change had infuriated vegetarian campaigners. Forty members of parliament signed a protest petition, and the media was bemused. The Independent newspaper called it a "truly cruel but funny prank played by the universe on vegetarians".
In this handout photo provided by Disney-ABC Domestic Television, 'Live with Regis and Kelly' hosts Regis Philbin, right, and Kelly Ripa shoot promos in the French Quarter section of New Orleans, Sunday, May 20, 2007. The program, which will broadcast from New Orleans from May 22 to May 25, will include appearances by actors Luke Wilson and John Stamos, chef Emeril Lagasse and singer Martina McBride.
Tuesday marks the centenary of the birth of the man who gave the world the immortal boy reporter Tintin, along with his faithful companions Captain Haddock and trusty little dog Snowy.
The eternally youthful creation of Belgian cartoonist Herge has never lost his charm throughout seven decades, his unmistakable tuft of hair growing into one of the great emblems of popular culture, continuing in popularity around the world long after his creator's death 24 years ago.
Herge, born May 22, 1907 in Brussels, was set to be celebrated here on Tuesday by faithful tintinophiles just days after movie heavyweights Steven Spielberg and Peter Jackson announced they were joining forces to direct and produce a digital 3-D trilogy based on the comic-strip reporter.
Herge's name is simply a phonetic rendering in French of the two initials, reversed, of the creator's real name, Georges Remi.
In a biting rebuke laughable hissy fit, the White House on Sunday dismissed former President Jimmy Carter as "increasingly irrelevant" after his harsh criticism of resident Bush.
Carter was quoted Saturday as saying "I think as far as the adverse impact on the nation around the world, this administration has been the worst in history."
The Georgia Democrat said Bush had overseen an "overt reversal of America's basic values" as expressed by previous administrations, including that of his own farther, former President George H.W. Bush.
"I think it's sad that President Carter's reckless personal criticism is out there," White House spokesman Tony Fratto (R-Delusional) responded whined Sunday from Crawford, where Bush spent the weekend.
Actor Bill Nighy poses as he arrives at the premiere of 'Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End,' Saturday, May 19, 2007, at Disneyland in Anaheim, Calif.
Photo by Mark J. Terrill
Actor Sylvester Stallone was formally convicted Monday of importing restricted muscle-building hormones into Australia and ordered to pay more than $9,870 in fines and court costs.
New South Wales state Deputy Chief Magistrate Paul Cloran said the "Rocky" and "Rambo" star had failed to show he had a valid prescription for vials of human growth hormone that were in his luggage when he arrived for a promotional tour in February. Stallone also had failed to declare the male hormone testosterone on a customs entry form, although he had a valid prescription.
Cloran fined Stallone $2,500 and ordered him to pay $8,200 in prosecution costs. Stallone, who was not present in court, had pleaded guilty last week.
The fourth foal of a breed of donkey rarer than the giant panda has been born in the space of a fortnight at a British farm.
Tizer the Poitou donkey joined three cousins also born this month at Woodford Farm in Pennington in the southern English county of Hampshire, the farm said.
In 1978, there were only 48 of the endangered species left in the world -- a figure that has risen to around 600 thanks to breeding programs.
However, only two were born in Britain last year and less than 30 worldwide, and the breed remains rarer than the giant panda, of which there are around 1,600 known globally.
Ruben Guerrero holds a sign referring to an episode of the television show, 'Seinfeld,' as he looks for a pair of humpback whales in the Port of Sacramento in West Sacramento, Calif., Friday, May 18, 2007. The pair of whales, believed to be a mother and her calf, entered the port, more than 90 miles from the ocean on Tuesday. Scientists have been trying to come up with a plan to force the whales back down the river to the sea.
Photo by Rich Pedroncelli
An Indonesian fisherman hooked a rare coelacanth, a species once thought as extinct as dinosaurs, and briefly kept the "living fossil" alive in a quarantined pool.
Justinus Lahama caught the four-foot, 110-pound fish early Saturday off Sulawesi island near Bunaken National Marine Park, which has some of the highest marine biodiversity in the world.
The fish died 17 hours later, an extraordinary survival time, marine biologist Lucky Lumingas said Sunday.
The coelacanth (pronounced SEE-la-kanth) was believed to be extinct for 65 million years until one was found in 1938 off Africa's coast, igniting worldwide interest. Several other specimens have since been discovered, including another off Sulawesi island in 1998.
Hugh Hefner may seem like he will live forever, but the Florida Keys rabbits named after him may not.
The population of rabbits on Big Pine Key has dwindled by about 50 percent in the past two years and is in danger of being wiped out. The Latin name for the rabbit is Sylvilagus palustris hefneri. That's a reference to Hefner, the Playboy magazine founder who financed research that identified the species in 1980.
The medium-sized, dark brown cottontail with a grayish-white belly was put on the federal endangered species list in 1990 when the population in the Florida Keys was estimated at 200.
Wildlife officials plan to begin a program next week to trap feral and stray cats, hoping that keeping a predator away will mean that the population of Lower Keys marsh rabbits will grow. The strategy worked on another group of the animals at the Naval Air Station at Boca Chica.
Actor Carl Wright, who began his career as a tap dancer and comedian and later appeared in movies including "Barbershop" and "Big Momma's House," has died, his family confirmed Sunday. He was 75.
Wright died of cancer at his home Saturday in Chicago, according to his daughter, Kia Wright.
Born in Orlando, Fla., Wright traveled the world as a young man working as a tap dancer, and he once danced with a one-legged partner as a team called the Three-Leggers, his daughter said. He also worked as a comedian, emcee and songwriter.
Wright is survived by his wife, Shirley, two other daughters and a granddaughter.
A chick is seen at the feet of parent white stork in a nest at Toyooka, western Japan, on Sunday May 20, 2007. An endangered white stork egg laid in the wild has hatched naturally in western Japan for the first time in more than 40 years, a local stork museum announced Sunday. The new chick's parents - a 7-year-old male Oriental white stork and his 9-year-old partner - were born through artificial breeding at a public breeding farm, the Hyogo Prefectural Homeland for the Oriental White Stork, and were released into the wild last September. The couple started mating in April and built their nest atop a 13-meter-tall manmade pole in a rice paddy near the farm in the city of Toyooka.
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