The big event tonight here will be the debut of Recount on HBO.
*** Update ***
HBO threw Warren Christopher under the bus.
*** Update #2 ***
They threw Katherine Harris under a fleet of busses, and are now backing them up over her and preparing for another run over her body.
*** Update #3 ***
Actually, a pretty good movie, and while shot from the perspective of the Gore team, it was very careful to not do the simplistic good/evil portrayals of the Gore/Bush team you might have expected.
I am still troubled by the notion of counting “dimpled” chads, but overall, I have to say we sure have a screwed up way of electing people.
Mary
Wahh! We get all the cool HBO stuff late up here.
Don’t tell us how it ends, OK? :P
Gold Star for Robot Boy
The Death Star blows up the Rebel base.
Mary
/shuns Gold Star for Robot Boy
TenguPhule
This is considered an improvement.
demimondian
Excellent! Do they finally get those annoying Ewoks, too?
TenguPhule
Fixed.
demimondian
Is Aeris an Ewok?
TenguPhule
No, those join the Lobby for Government Outsourcing by explaining that a Wookie can’t live on Endor because it doesn’t make any sense.
Genine
That’s just plain ol’ funny!
That’s just plain ol’ mean! Ewoks are cute! I was dressed as an Ewok for Halloween the year that came out.
r€nato
Better drive a stake through her heart, just to be sure.
r€nato
I wonder what the right-wing Outrage of the Day will be WRT Recount.
jake
And Camp Clinton will compare Obama to Krazy Kat Harris in 5…4…3…
Southerndemocrat
Warren Christopher deserves no less.
dorsey
This is painful to watch. I don’t even know why I’m subjecting myself to the punishment of reliving this.
Although I do have to say Laura Dern’s portrayal of Katherine Harris is impeccable.
TenguPhule
Improved.
demimondian
I’ll make an exception for you. I’m sure you were both wise and cute as an Ewok.
Krista
Thanks for reopening old wounds. And for making me miss my Playstation.
carsick
I was totally blown away when Gore’s team accepted the Haliburton stock deal, especially after they had won it on the merits.
Is that true? Or just a Hollywood twist ending?
Bey
I was actually quite shocked by Aeris’ death.
Conservatively Liberal
And they were still able to get traction? I thought she was slimier than that.
Were they able to at least fill a couple of potholes?
Krista
I would love to see a picture of that. I bet you were ridiculously cute.
CapMidnight
Careful: the silicon there is booby-trapped.
Svengali
As a Floridian I would like to re-apologize for Katherine Harris. We all really, really, really hate her. Trust me.
Bob In Pacifica
Don’t have HBO so I’ll have to watch it on Netflix if I have the stomach. Just a word on Warren Christopher. He got his start in oppression as part of J. Edgar Hoover’s COINTELPRO.
Yeah, as far as I can throw him.
Rick Taylor
For those who have no idea what we’re talking about. .. .
r€nato
and while we are on the topic, a hearty “FUCK YOU” to Sandra Day O’Connor for being the deciding vote in installing Bush in the Coup of 2000. Her vote was undoubtedly influenced by her desire to retire under a GOP president rather than a Democratic president.
Rick Taylor
And for final fantasy VII fans who want a bit of nostalgia, a funny piece on random battles.
4tehlulz
Superior spoiler.
Genine
Thanks! I was 8 years old, so I don’t know how wise I was… But considering what tends to pass as “wisdom” nowadays, I was probably akin to the Dalai Lama.
Thanks! Now that I’m thinking about it, I would like to see those pictures too.
But that requires me talking to relatives…on purpose.
And, the funny thing is, I don’t know who would freak out more: me or them.
tBone
You can substitute Spock for Spike if you’re one of those people.
nightjar
Glad I dropped HBO awhile back. No desire to relive 2000. Besides, already know how it ends.
tom.a
I’d like to second that, if only because at the time I actually believed she had a shred of decency in her. She, more than any other, failed us in my view.
D-Chance.
On HBO??? I’m shocked, SHOCKED, I tell ya…
Ninerdave
Best video game ever. I still play it from time to time on my PS2
shera
You bastards. Now I’m gonna have the theme song to that old Saturday morning cartoon about the Ewoks in my head for the rest of the evening.
rob!
i’ll rent Recount once Obama is in the White House and the Bush Presidency is irrevocably OVER.
montysano
I’ve always enjoyed watching Laura Dern. There’s something about tall/hot/intelligent that does it for me.
Conservatively Liberal
Surprise no more.
J. Michael Neal
Katherine Harris does not deserve Laura Dern playing her.
The Moar You Know
Two. The silicone worked great.
nightjar
Yea, remember the line One of these days the sun’s gonna come up and burn a hole clean through the planet like a giant electrical x-ray.
Conservatively Liberal
Regarding the ‘indented’ chads, back in 2000 I remember hearing that the rubber ‘grips’ or plates on the underside of the voting template had been replaced with hard plastic in some machines. When a vote is cast, the punch pushes the chad in to the rubber so that it grips it, and if it is still attached, when the card was removed it would rip them loose. The hard rubber made it nearly impossible for the chad to be punched through and be gripped like the soft rubber would.
That and I guess some machines had not been cleaned out for some time, and the chads piled up and blocked the voter from properly punching the card.
I am not saying any of this is fact, but I remember reading and/or hearing about it way back then.
cleek
aw man, you’re five months too late with that prediction:
zoe from pittsburgh
(swoon) I have very little desire to relive and remember the 2000 election– such dismal and dark days in DC– although with Laura Dern’s appearence as Katheleen Harris I have to acquiesce.
I first developed a crush on Dern while watching Wild at Heart. I haven’t seen a thing that I haven’t LOVED her in– Ramblin’ Rose, Citizen Ruth…plus there was the whole Ellen coming out story. (She played Ellen’s love interest.) She’s awesome.
zoe from pittsburgh
Oops. Er, Katherine, not Katheleen.
Jess
John,
sorry to intrude with a serious comment, but I’m really curious as to what you thought about the situation back in 2000. Did you think there was something rotten in the sunshine state even then? Or was this like a whole new event for you?
Octavian
I thought Recount was wonderful. Whenever Harris came on screen I couldn’t stop laughing. I hope they release it on DVD, I’d happily buy it.
mapaghimagsik
John, not to be pedantic, but it is one of my little joys.
Isn’t the plural of Chad, Chad?
El Doh
Chad is indeed the plural.
Jeff
How does this woman have a job as a bureau chief, even at the Washington Times.
Hart Williams
I waited all week for it. Was ready when it premiered. Watched it for five minutes, and then realized:
This is just too goddamned painful. I suffered through this for real the first time. And I’ve suffered through seven-plus years of its horrible effects ever since.
Why would I want to suffer through it again? I know how it ends. A path not taken: financial solvency, environmental sanity, the Social Security lock box, paying down the national debt, etc. etc.
And instead we got … YOU fill in the blank(-faced buffoon).
So I watched the Mars Phoenix probe landing instead.
Unlike 2000, it landed just fine, with a minimum of criminality.
Far North
There is too much “dressing as an Ewok” and “death star” crap in this thread. Damn, that’s what you folks want to discuss after viewing “Recount”? WTFever.
That said, of all the slime ball shenanigans from team Bush, one that pissed me off then and bothers me to this day is the phony “riot” staged by the republican congressional staffers who were flown down to Florida from DC in order to shut down local recounts. They were the ones that passed themselves off as locals and chanted, “let us in, let us in” while one of the recounts was taking place. One to those disgusting “rioters”, in real life, was a staffer to the most corrupt man in Congress, the reprehensible Don Young from my home state of Alaska. Hopefully, we’ll vote Don out of office this year, but I’ve learned to never underestimate the conservative lust for political office. With the conservative dominance in our state, conservative shenanigans around election time wouldn’t be a surprise.
In the end, team Bush did everything they could to deny the will of the voters. The reprehnsible supreme court finished the kill.
Pooh
Far north,
Young is going to lose the primary to Parnell anyway, who will ride the good feelings of the gas line to a solid victory over most likely Berkowitz. Focus on Begich, who has a real chance to beat Uncle Ted.
D0n Camillo
I don’t have HBO and even if I did, I wouldn’t be able to watch it. I could barely stand watching the events unfold the first time 8 years ago. Now, knowing what happened to the country and the rest of the world as a result, it’s too heartbreaking to think of.
Still, I second all motions that Laura Dern is teh awesome.
Chuck Butcher
Like Hart I watched a few minutes of it with a creeping sense of disaster to come and I realized that while that faux cowboy was still in office rather than chains I just could not watch the trashing of a nation for amusement.
I strongly recommend following his link back, he’s wetside Oregonian but I don’t hold it against him.
montysano
Lula: “Oh Sailor, I’d follow you to the ends of the earth!”
Sailor: “Rockin’ good news!”
One of the great lines in movie history.
D-Chance.
Oh,noes! It’s Memorial Day, and Google didn’t prep some fancy holiday-theme logo. I’m sure K-Lo will be all over this…
Grumpy Code Monkey
Y’all may be interested to know that “Recount” was written by Danny Strong, who played Jonathan on “Buffy The Vampire Slayer.”
Television Without Pity interviews him about “Recount” here.
jnfr
I thought it was a great choice to keep our focus with Kevin Spacey and Dennis O’Leary as people fighting for votes to be counted while the Dems on one side were being wimps and the Republicans were being thugs. It was all just as frustrating as I remembered it back then.
Conservatively Liberal
Us folks here on the ‘wet’ side of Oregon have no problem with you folks in the dry, dusty side of Oregon. If we meet in the middle though, I think we get mud.
;)
jake
If you don’t have HBO, or Recount didn’t fulfill your batshit k-razee wimmins jones, you must check out pAtlas Shrugs.
You simply must.
tBone
Or not, if you value your sanity. There aren’t enough “WTF??”s in the world . . .
Notorious P.A.T.
Is that all? You’re easy to please, heh heh.
Notorious P.A.T.
No, there aren’t.
Tom
Hart Williams,
I had the same feeling prior to watching it. I almost didn’t watch because I didn’t want to relive all the bullshit. But the movie is in fact enjoyable to watch. It takes a somewhat detached view of the story (though it does side more with the Dems — but I think it’s because there’s a good case to be made for the Dems side in this story).
If nothing else, it’s a good document of what occurred in those months down in Florida.
Mary
Is it wrong that I played that several times, watching very, very closely? And that I was a little disappointed that I couldn’t see anything?
The women in the back were giggling and catcalling about something, but he does have that Andy Travis-esque build, you know. I somehow don’t think he’d go out of his way to flaunt wood.
(The YouTube comments are as ugly as you might think. Don’t bother going there.)
rachel
No, I don’t want to be up all night cleaning the stooopid off my brain. How about a summary?
Mary
It’s looped CNN video of him talking on the phone at the front of a vehicle (bus or a plane before takeoff). He’s pacing around a bit, and at one point puts one foot of an armrest as he continues talking. Meanwhile you can hear women giggling and calling out to someone walking down the aisle to sit down.
That’s it.
OTOH, he is a distant cousin to Cheney, and there was that terrifying photo of Dick making the rounds a while back …
nightjar
A very sad story, and unfortunately one we can expect repeated many times for the foreseeable future.
WASHINGTON — Until the day he died, Sgt. Brian Rand believed he was being haunted by the ghost of the Iraqi man he killed.
The ghost choked Rand while he slept in his bunk, forcing him to wake up gasping for air and clawing at his throat.
He whispered that Rand was a vampire and looked on as the soldier stabbed another member of Fort Campbell’s 96th Aviation Support Battalion in the neck with a fork in the mess hall.
Eventually, the ghost told Rand he needed to kill himself.
According to family members and police reports, on Feb. 20, 2007, just a few months after being discharged from his second tour of duty in Iraq, Rand smoked half of a cigarette as he wrote a suicide note, grabbed a gun and went to the Cumberland River Center Pavilion in Clarksville, Tenn. As the predawn dark pressed in, he breathed in the wintry air and stared out at the park where he and his wife, Dena, had married.
Then he placed the gun to his head and silenced his inner ghosts.
I once knew a Vietnam vet who believed he was being haunted by the ghosts from a cemetery where his squad had set up a night time ambush. I haven’t seen him in 25 years so don’t know if he ever got past that.
Fuck you George W. Bush — Fuck you very much!!
jake
A summary you say? Very well.
ZOMG, OBAMA HAZ A BIG P3NIS! DRUGS! SCARY PASTOR! CHINESE RESTAURANT WITH FUNNY NAME! MONTY PYTHON!!
You wish I was making this shit up. Use a mixture of vinegar and baking soda to remove the stupid in a environmentally responsible manner. Use a medium hard tooth brush to avoid further damage to the grey matter.
BTW H/T to rz at S,N!
Ed Drone
She has admitted to this — “The main point was that the Republican won.” [paraphrased]
May the Devil double-damn her soul. If she were still on the court, she would be impeached. It occurs to me that if she would testify that others had that same goal, they could/should still be impeached. Of course, no one will start the ball rolling, you know.
Ed
zoe from pittsburgh
Man, I’m watching Recount now.
It’s even worse than I care to remember– the Dems brought a stick of gum to a knifefight. The GOP brought a glock.
(sigh)
Tom Hilton
I figure I’m just a glutton for PTSD.
Ron
Katherine Harris’ face already looks like it’s been run over.
w vincentz
http://www.commondreams.org/archive/2008/05/27/9223/
Here ya go.