• I’ve forgotten about some of the lame film projects that were launched in the wake of James Bond’s early success on the silver screen. Fortunately, the spy-movie site Permission to Kill is there to remind me. Who remembers this 1967 dud, with its horrendous trailer? This is not destined to appear in my Netflix queue ...
• J.D. Rhoades, the author of Breaking Cover, is Angie Johnson-Schmit’s latest guest on the podcast In for Questioning. As she explains, Rhoades “talks about his latest standalone thriller ..., what’s in the works with his Jack Keller series, and his growing interest in writing for comics. He also reveals the location of the best barbecue in North Carolina and which fictional character he’d least like to meet in a dark alley.” You can listen here.
• Speaking of podcasts, this week’s guest at CrimeWAV is Dave Zeltserman (Bad Thoughts), reading his short story “Adrenaline,” which appeared originally in Out of the Gutter. The episode is available here.
• In other interview news, Christa Faust (Money Shot) answers more than 20 questions over at The Cult.
• And Matt Beynon Rees (A Grave in Gaza) is the focus this week of National Public Radio’s excellent “Crime in the City” series. As Rees writes in his blog, “NPR correspondent Eric Westervelt and I spent the day wandering Nablus, in particular the casbah, and it provides a very colorful look at Palestinian life. He puts together a radio piece which really takes advantage of the medium to give you the sounds of the city that are so hard to describe.” Listen here.
• Adrian McKinty definitely has his opinions about why crime fiction “whups every other genre’s metaphorical ass.” Read his thoughts at Crime Always Pays.
• Philadelphia’s third Noir at the Bar event, previously canceled, has been rescheduled for Tuesday, August 19. The guest of honor will be Dave White (The Evil That Men Do).
• Declan Hughes reports that “the full list of writers attending the [Irish Sunday Independent] Books 2008 Crime Writing Series has now been posted on-line.”
• Could John McCain be any more beholden to lobbyists? (No “in bed with” jokes today. Sorry.)
• The wonderful Noir of the Week film blog focuses most recently on Rogue Cop (1954), which was supposed to have been fading star George Raft’s comeback.
• If anybody cares, this is definitely going on my Christmas list.
• Oh no, not another classic crime drama destined to be defiled by efforts to develop a more modern version of it. When will Hollywood learn to leave well enough alone?
Tuesday, August 12, 2008
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3 comments:
"Could John McCain be any more beholden to lobbyists?"
Yes, he could have taken thousands from the head of a company that manufactures tire-pressure gauges and then, two months later, begin promoting use of pressure gauges. But I'm sure you'd agree that would just be coincidence.
Oh, please. That's a downright pathetic attack on Barack Obama. He received a measly $7,000 from John Zimmerman, chief financial officer of Tomkins, a company that produces "a variety of products for the industrial, automotive and building products markets." I hardly think that $7,000 will do much to sway any politician--and certainly not one with the record-breaking contributions Obama has been receiving--to say one thing or another. And besides, as Obama has acknowledged, he was far from the first person (and he won't be the last) to opine that keeping car tires properly inflated can make a difference in gas mileage. An article in Popular Mechanics points out that he is correct:
http://www.popularmechanics.com/automotive/
how_to/4276844.html?series=19
Such efforts won't eliminate America's need for oil, and Obama makes no suggestion that they will. But they can certainly make a measurable dent in U.S. oil use. Beyond that, more needs to be done to perfect alternative sources of energy. Drilling our way to oil independence is ridiculous. We're currently living through the last highs of world oil use; after this, other sources of energy have to be found, and delaying those efforts by destroying the Alaska National Wildlife Refuge (ANWR) or eliminating environmental controls on offshore drilling isn't going to change that fact.
McCain thinks Americans are idiots and will fall for whatever ridiculous statements he throws at them--even if he can't remember tomorrow what he said today. Telling us that we can solve the current energy crisis by drilling off the Florida and California coasts proves how low his opinion is of our intelligence. If you liked George W. Bush and his lies, you'll love McCain.
Cheers,
Jeff
More news about McCain's corrupting lobbyist ties. This from The Huffington Post:
"The non-partisan group Campaign Money Watch has come up with another startling figure for those who follow the presidential money chase.
"According to an analysis performed by the group, McCain's top fundraisers and aides have collected nearly $1 billion in fees from U.S. companies in the past decade -- specifically, $930,949,819. Using numbers provided by the Center for Responsive Politics, the group also found that officials of those very same companies have given nearly $12 million to McCain's presidential campaign, so far.
"'The McCain campaign relies on big money lobbyists, and they'll rely on him,' said David Donnelly, director of Campaign Money Watch. 'In the "you-scratch-my-back, I'll-scratch-yours" world of Washington, $931 million gets the special interests the best government money can buy. But just think of the payday these lobbyists might expect in a McCain Administration.'"
There's more information here:
http://www.campaignmoney.org/pressroom/
2008/08/13/the-nearly-1-billion-connection-mccain-
and-his-lobbyists-clients
And here:
http://www.mccainslobbyists.com/
After watching John "100 Years War" McCain pucker up to Bush's ass for the last seven years, nobody should be fooled into thinking that McCain won't do ANYTHING to become the next president. That includes selling out to lobbyists, flip-flopping on one issue after another, and betraying those people who once thought he was in any regard a "maverick." He's become a GOP machine politician, through and through.
Cheers,
Jeff
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