(it's political) Yoo & Addington play their games

John Yoo & David Addington testify (i.e. dissemble) in front of John Conyers' Judiciary Committee

Here you see the Jekyll and Hyde of the Bush Administration's Justice Department.

John Yoo is the ultimate 'yes-man' who could crank out papers supporting whatever policy was put in front of him. Here we see him for the intellectual lightweight toady that he is. Unable to give an unqualified answers, backing the long way around into word games, all the time slowing down the proceedings.

Addington is a bully, who is a kind of (evil) genius. He is Cheney's lawyer, and he build the large legal justifications that he then gets the Yoo's of the world to execute on the brick & mortar level of position papers. His demeanor and MO is to stand toe-to-toe and bluster and debate, showing no shame or pause in rationalizing his pauses work. This is the modern Machiavellian attorney of the powerful and rich (who want to stay as rich as possible at all costs).

This encounter is really pretty comical, but of course none of this is really funny.

The Cheney's Law episode of PBS' Frontline gives the best coverage of this dynamic, and how these two enabled the worst tortures and travesties of this Iraq War. Don't seem to be able to embed the video on this page, but you can watch here.

RIP Carlin

We'll miss you George

George Carlin a great and long-standing-up comedian has died at 71.

A Ride on the SS Jeremiah O'Brien

Engine room of Jeremiah O'Brien, originally uploaded by mikl-em.

Danielle and I and a few friends rode for four hours on the bay today on the SS Jeremiah O'Brien. A beautiful day, an incredible ship, we had a lovely time.

This video shows you the engine rooms at work. You can see more images and videos from our trip.


And you can visit the boat and witness the power of her engines for yourself when Long Now's Mechanicrawl happens on July 12th.

Mikl's little tiny media empire

A primer on where you can read what I write

This is admittedly a little confusing. But such is (my) life. This webpage is my blog, but there are a bunch of other places that I typically update more frequently.

Over the last few years I've most actively written on my Yahoo! Group. This has been and will continue to be where I post about cool events in SF that I am a part of or that I heartily endorse. So it's mostly interesting for folks in SF. Additionally you can expect the occasional political post here. The events are mostly comedy or theater happenings, though some other art events and just plain parties will show up from time to time. The most groups post highlights the closing weekend of Beowulf by Banana Bag & Bodice--great friends who are out from NYC. This is a really special show and it plays in Berkeley only through this Sunday 6/22.

I am now a guest-blogger on laughingsquid.com the site run by my good friend Scott Beale. This is a high honor as Scott has built a large audience and a fantastic voice of blogging the weird, fun and geeky. It's great to jump in and add to the mix. There are seven guest-bloggers in total and I think that both we and Scott are enjoying the collaboration

Another talented friend Attaboy has a magazine and website called Hi Fructose. I've been writing features and a few small pieces for the magazine. You can find my writing in issue #1 and #6 as well as #3 which is sold out. The BIG news is that Last Gasp is publishing a Hi-Fructose Collected Edition featuring highlights from the first 4 issues (2-3 of which are out of print). There's a limited special edition of 3000 available end of summer (order now), and then there's a regular edition coming later. Hi Fructose is an amazing magazine & website full of vital very current art with a razor-edged whimsy that is undeniable. And Attaboy is a great artist in his own right. Make sure you check his stuff out.

Then there's my Flickr stream. There's lots of cool stuff there. I do like to document things, and so it stays pretty fresh. Travels, parties and social mischief, and sometimes backstage stuff from shows I'm in. There's usually fun stuff there.

Rarely updated, but w/ a few interesting things nonetheless, is my blog on Vox. I like the way that Vox enables sharing multimedia, so I've put a few things up there. But it's really rare for me to update it.

Now granted, all of this stuff is listed on the sidebar, plus a few more, but I thought I'd take a moment to explain things in a little more detail. Thanks for stopping by. Sign up for the RSS feed while you're here, if you'd like.

Euro 2008: Germany advances!

You can call me a Deutsche-file

Between Danielle's German heritage and the blissful vacation we had in Germany two years ago for the 2006 World Cup, I am a big fan of things German and especially German soccer. There are other teams that I like, but the experience of watching Ballack, Klose, Podolski and the rest thrill their home country (in an eventual 3rd place finish) has forever endeared them to me.

I realize that this whole post may be a bit of a non-sequitur, but please forgive and be patient. There are only a few games left. :D

Today Germany's national soccer team beat expectations in a thrilling 5-goal game and sent the Portuguese team home. In the process they made it to the final four of the Euro 2008 tournament. Klose got his first goal of the tournament, and Ballack his second in as many games. Here's a detailed match report for any football geeks who stumble onto this page.

I could only watch a few minutes of the game during lunch, but it brought back the rush of being in Germany during the World Cup.

Here's a link for all the Euro 2008 news from Yahoo! News. And here are all my photos from the World Cup trip.

Killer B's last weekend and post on Laughing Squid

Go see the Killer B's at The EXIT--while you can!

I wrote a post at Laughing Squid about this incredible show of 3 great movie-like plays. Just fantastic, must-see stuff. Just some of the fantastic theater going on in the area right now. Beowulf being another, which I will have to post about here soon as well.

Anyway, I said it all in my post on the Squid site. So I'll let you check that out for all the particulars (including gorgeous pix). You can get tickets here.

Gay Marriage legal in California

JUST MARRIED FINALLY ...and... NO STOPPING. I like that.

I had the tremendous pleasure of being at the SF City Hall today with a huge crowd to celebrate the first same-sex marriage since the right for all people to be married was upheld in California. It was a great day! I took some pix & videos, and wrote it up on Flickr. See the description of each pic for more details.

By the way, Danielle and I are also officially thrilled about our right to NOT get married. It's dandy. We couldn't be more pleased than to not have the law involved with our relationship. It's nice to have the choice, even if you ignore it, and I'm glad same-sex couple now have the same option.

My blogging Renaissance

I know, promises promises, but this time for real. Soon I'll be guest-blogging from time to time on the Laughing Squid site, so I need to put something a bit fresher up here at my own place. The 4 of you who subbed via RSS feed are probably having heart attacks right now, huh?

Stay tuned for more. Unfortunately my first post is an unfortunate one, memorializing my departed friend Felicity Perez. The post on the Squid site will be up, probably later today.