Happy Day After Bastille Day

Hope y'all filled up on escargot and shitty drunk on the bubblies.

The Valerie Plame saga gets curiouser and curiouser.

I get the sense that both sides are too caught up in the politics and don't realize the real consequences. First, there's no defending the leak. It doesn't matter whether she was an "operative" or a "staffer" or a "spy". As a result of the leak, all of Plame's assets are compromised, not to mention the safety of any agent who worked with her. And of course, there's the chilling effect - wouldn't an asset have second thoughts about working with the CIA if they knew that their cover could be blown for petty politics? But what is more disappointing (though not at all surprising) is that the Rove apologists are trying to get by on semantics, after all the shit GOP gave Clinton for trying to define what "is" is.

The Dems aren't doing much better though. First - demanding Rove's resignation is a mistake. Do we really believe that Rove will cease to have the President's ear if he's kicked out of the Oval Office? Please. Turd Blossom really is Bush's brain and Mr. Hyde. More importantly, firing Rove is an easy out for Bush. Then he can say to the people. "I did what I promised to do and made a huge political sacrifice doing the right thing," which is utter bullpoopoo, of course.

And what's more disturbing here? That Bush had so little institutional control that he wasn't aware that his most trusted advisors were calling around outing a CIA agent? Or that he knew and lied about it? Or that with this administration Covering Ya Ass is a full time job, and the options are either incompetence or dishonesty?

Dan Savage was right about Santorum.

Seriously, what is up with these wingnuts? What happened to the real conservatives?

Update: Spaeaking of whom...

So who's catching Seu Jorge at the Bowery in September? Me!

Oh, this is going to be fun. Jerome James signs with the Knicks. Will JJ be another Eric Dampier or will he be a... who was the last underachieving big man who actually earned his big contract?

ESPN's Jason Whitlock doesn't so much defends Larry Brown as he pummels the shit out of the Pistons organizations.

You know, while I never did like Brown's flirtation with the Cavs, the Pistons surely knew what they were getting. I guess Brown and the Pistons deserve each other.

Complaining about "classically trained".

Four years after Astoria was declared "up and coming", New York acknowledges the existence of Queens.

They might as well rename The Villager, to This Week In Gentrification

Your favorite Japanese roots pop duo-slash-Cartoon Network stars, Puffy Amiyumi will be doing a mini-tour of the East Coast (and Chicago)

AMIYUMI ROCK SHOW ** GO EAST!!** TOUR

8/18 (thu) NEW YORK Irving Plaza
8/20 (sat) PHILADELPHIA, Theatre of the Living Arts
8/22 (tue) WASHINGTON DC, 9:30 Club
8/24 (thu) BOSTON, Sommerville Theatre
8/27 (sat) CHICAGO, Vic Theatre

Bomani Jones on the legacy of dead rappers, notably Biggie and Pac. Not much to disagree with - there's no question that 2Pac's legacy gets overblown because of his premature death.

But while he has attained near-god status, because he didn't outlive the mid-90s feigned outrage over "gangsta rap", those who aren't fond of him end up dismissing him too easily.

10 years ago, he was the mainstream's media's poster boy for everything that was wrong with today's society. If the media had the gift of foresight, they probably would have blamed his lyrics for terrorism as well.

The thing is, one can't talk about the ying of Pac without also talking about his yang. Duality defined his career. No, duality was Pac. For every "Hit "Em Up", there was a "Dear Mama". Did his THUG LIFE tattoo glorify gangbanging? Sure. But it also was a (tortured) acronym for "The Hate U Give Little Infants Fucks Everyone". There wasn't anything about his music or his public persona that wasn't two-sided by design.

And "by design" is the operative phrase here. All the talk about how Pac was "raw" and "authentic" overlooks how he built his stage persona. Lest we forget, this was a bright dude with a performing art school background, and he didn't have a criminal record before he started his music career. Emotional? Out of control? Hardly. He knew exactly what he was doing.

That's it. I'm gone for the weekend. Get wet at Siren Festival.