"MISSION ACCOMPLISHED"

Those of you who know me may be aware that a couple friends and I have, for the past six years or so, been on a very intermittent quest to track down a classic bad horror movie called The Creeping Terror. Basically, we were sitting around one night with nothing to do and paging through a video guide, and its description of this obscure, cheap Z-grade flick about people being eaten by a giant alien carpet just sounded too tempting to pass up. Unfortunately, and perhaps not surprisingly, the movie was nearly impossible to find until the recent release of a Mystery Science Theater 3000 DVD set which included its roasting at the hands of Mike, Crow, and Tom. So, to make a long story short, Alfred picked up the DVD, and we sat down and watched it Friday night while I was back in St. Louis for Thanksgiving break.

The Creeping Terror is sometimes held up as a contender for the title of Worst Movie Ever Made, and while it's probably not the most laugh-out-loud bad movie you can find out there, it might be the most pointless. Ed Wood's Glen or Glenda and Plan 9 From Outer Space, for example, may be ridiculously inept, but there's at least a discernible attempt at an actual story in each, and in fact Wood's failed attempts at real innovation and substance are a large part of what makes his movies so unintentionally hilarious. The makers of The Creeping Terror, on the other hand, seemed to have no higher ambitions than filming one boring, badly staged, and thoroughly unscary scene after another in which people are eaten by an alien (aside from one scene in which the ubiquitous narrator goes off on a tangent about how people's lives are changed by marriage). The alien certainly qualifies as the worst monster I've ever seen (which I dare say is a non-insignificant claim, given that I've watched the early seasons of Doctor Who), and its "creeping" is so slow that it only ever catches anyone because they are seemingly too stupid or too preoccupied (usually by making out with each other) to run away. Ed Wood's movies leave you wondering how he managed to come up with such awful dialogue and plotting, but The Creeping Terror leaves you wondering why anyone bothered to make the movie at all.

ENERGY BILL BLOCKED IN SENATE

The Senate has just voted to block Bush's energy bill thanks to a rather unique political alignment: Tom Daschle joined 12 other Democratic "defectors" to vote in favor of cloture, while all five New England Republicans -- Snowe and Collins of Maine, Gregg and Sununu of New Hampshire, and good old Lincoln Chafee of Rhode Island -- voted with John McCain against limiting debate, effectively blocking the bill. You can go here to see how everyone voted on this one. Anyway, an impressive victory for the pro-environment side, especially considering the lack of support from Daschle and the other Democrats who declined to support the filibuster. (In a procedural quirk, Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist also voted to support the filibuster so that he could move to reconsider the vote at a later date.) So far, the most comprehensive article on this bill I've been able to find is MSNBC's story.

Speaking of Lincoln Chafee, he seems to be playing coy on whether or not he's going to vote for Bush in 2004. Excerpt from a Providence Journal article by John E. Mulligan, Liz Anderson, and Catherine Gregg:

In light of his support for Mr. Bush's election in 2000, Chafee was asked, "Are you inclined to vote for him again?"

"I'm a good Republican," Chafee responded, smiling.

Chafee was then asked why he would not give a "yes" or "no" answer to the question.

"That's as far as I'll go," he responded.

A subsequent check of news clippings showed that Chafee had said on the Channel 12 Newsmakers show in June that he was a loyal Republican and would support Mr. Bush for reelection.

Through spokesman Steve Hourahan , Chafee declined to be interviewed again to explain the seeming change in position. But Hourahan confirmed that Chafee would "not go beyond" his ambiguous remark of Wednesday afternoon.

You can find the complete article here.

MAX CLELAND AND THE 9/11 COMMISSION

There's an interesting interview over at Salon with former Sen. Max Cleland of Georgia (who, incidentally, recently visited the Boston Kerry HQ and gave a nice talk for the volunteers). Cleland talks about the ongoing 9/11 commission investigation, the problems they've had getting info from the Administration, and the war in Iraq. For those of you who don't remember, Cleland, a triple-amputee Vietnam vet, suffered what may have been the most galling election defeat for those of us on the Democratic side of the aisle last fall, when his opponent questioned his commitment to national security and ran an ad featuring pictures of Osama Bin Laden and Saddam Hussein.

On a semi-related note, we're kicking off the Kerry signature drive in Rhode Island this weekend. We need 1,000 signatures to get him on the primary ballot, so we're aiming for about 3,000 assuming that many of them will end up getting disqualified.

OF CASTLES AND CANVASSING

Well, the trip to Hammond Castle Museum on Saturday went off considerably more smoothly than I'd anticipated: most of the inscriptions we were looking for were (a) inside and (b) concentrated in a relatively small area, and the ones that were outside were reachable with minimal acrobatics. Having centered in on the "museum" aspect of the building's title rather than the "castle" aspect, I was expecting to spend three hours desperately running through cavern after cavern of a full-sized art museum in the faint hopes of finding all the inscriptions assigned to me before the place closed, but in fact most of us were finished about half an hour before we had to leave.

Canvassing in Nashua yesterday was relatively uneventful: we talked to a couple of Kerry supporters, a couple of Dean supporters, and a number of people who were undecided. It seems odd to me that there are so many people who still say they aren't really thinking about it yet, but that's probably just my skewed perspective as a volunteer/political junkie.

EVILNESS UPDATE

Kevin's Marginalia is down to 32% evil according to the ever-reliable Gematriculator. Woohoo!

(Yes, it's true: I have absolutely no life whatsoever.)

VANESSA KERRY VISITS BROWN

Anyone who's been following the Democratic primary race probably knows that recent days have not been kind to the Kerry campaign, and between the firing of his campaign manager, a rather ho-hum Tonight Show appearance (I think Triumph the Insult Comic Dog got more screen time), and a particularly pessimistic Salon article, I must admit I was starting to feel like the vultures were circling. Fortunately, I think we all had our faith rejuvenated a little on Wednesday night, when his daughter Vanessa Kerry visited the Brown Democrats and gave a great speech. Hearing her talk about both him as a person and how she's seen him react to the events of the past few years really helped to counter the impression, held by some, of Kerry as an aloof politico who's somehow less than genuine in his positions, and, if you'll forgive the cliché, brought out the human side that doesn't always come across in interviews or debates. (Though as I've said before, I think Kerry gets a tougher rap than he deserves on this point -- he's usually the funniest one at the debates after Sharpton, and certainly no one who's seen him in person has ever come away unimpressed.) It was especially nice to hear her speak so sincerely about her concerns about the country's direction under the Bush Administration and what made her decide that she really did believe in her father's ideas and that she wanted to take a year off from med school to hit the campaign trail. The Q&A also went well (I was expecting at least one "hostile" question, especially since I'm pretty sure we're outnumbered by Deanites among the Brown Democrats, but fortunately it never happened), and we even got a few new recruits for Brown Students for Kerry after it was over. Our next big event is canvassing in Nashua, NH on Sunday, so I'll probably be back to post about that soon.

In other news, the Epigraphy class is heading up to Hammond Castle Museum in Gloucester, MA tomorrow to look at some inscriptions. Unfortunately, we only have a few hours to do what we need to do, and many of these are either outside (an unpleasant prospect given the cold and windy weather lately), high up a wall (an equally unpleasant prospect if you're afraid of heights like I am), or both. Frankly, I think I'll consider it a success if we get through this with nobody getting pneumonia or falling off a ladder.

ADDENDUM ON ROCK THE VOTE

Apparently the Brown student who asked the inane "PCs or Macs?" question at the Rock the Vote debate (and caused more than a little collective embarrassment here) didn't come up with the question herself, but rather had it fed to her by CNN personnel looking to help the candidates "appeal to a younger audience." (Yeah, because nothing "appeals" to us quite like being made to look like fools on national television.) Check out Howard Kurtz's column for the Washington Post.

MORE ON IRAQ: "THE LAST-MINUTE OFFER"

I'm definitely having one of my befuddled moments on Iraq right now after reading this yesterday. One thing that I'm becoming increasingly convinced of is that Saddam may not have been nearly as savvy as I'd assumed he was. As for whether that actually made him more or less dangerous, I'd have to plead...well, befuddlement.

I haven't read Salon's take on this yet, but you can find it here if you want.

WASHINGTON POST: SADDAM WAS SURE OF HIS OWN SURVIVAL

My reaction to the apparent failure to find weapons of mass destruction in Iraq has generally gone back and forth between anger and just plain befuddlement. Even though I opposed the war, I kind of figured that Iraq probably had some WMD, and I was pretty surprised that none turned up when the U.S. invaded. (Though maybe I shouldn't have been, given the Administration's track record in finding other things it's looking for, such as Osama Bin Laden, the source of the Valerie Plame leak, an actual economic plan, etc.) In particular, I haven't been able to figure out why, if Iraq in fact possessed no WMD, Saddam didn't just produce proof of that fact and presumably prevent an invasion (or at least make one even more politically difficult for Bush). Anyway, this article, while not the final word, sheds some light on just what the hell might have been going on in Iraq in the lead-up to war.

A FREE EVIL DETECTOR

Thanks to Alfred for discovering this site. Apparently this blog is 43% evil. On the other hand, I checked and my genre TV reviews page (still online but now in cold storage) is only 14% evil, so maybe there's still hope for me.

ROCK THE VOTE FORUM

Last night was definitely the most fun I've had since getting involved with the Kerry campaign. A group of us from Brown, Providence College, and Stonehill shared a bus up to Boston to do "visibility" outside Faneuil Hall before the debate (meaning standing outside with Kerry signs and cheering). We definitely had the biggest turnout of any of the candidates (including student groups from quite a few other schools, particularly Boston University), though there were sizeable groups for Dean, Edwards, and Kucinich, smaller groups for Clark and Lieberman, and a couple of Sharpton signs. There was a little rivalry between the various Democratic supporters, but nothing nasty, and the Edwards people (who had the most creative cheers -- my friend Jenn from North Carolina informs me that they're modified NC basketball cheers) led everyone in a chant of "Na na na na, na na na na, Bush-Cheney, good-bye" shortly after they showed up. Not too long after that, some Bush supporters showed up with signs and were roundly booed. (g)

The student supporters all watched the debate together at a place called Hennessy's right near Faneuil Hall. I didn't hear everything that was said, but my impression was that Kerry did pretty well. It was probably for the best that he wasn't involved in the dust-up over Dean's Confederate Flag comments at the beginning, especially since Sharpton and Edwards pretty much nailed Dean on the fact that it's potentially both offensive to African-Americans and condescending to the Southern white voters that he's trying to win over. Dean is still my third or fourth choice after Kerry, Gephardt, and maybe Clark, but he could have made the point he was trying to make (i.e. that Democratic economic policy has something to offer even to voters who disagree with the party's social agenda) in a far less controversial manner.

After the debate was over, we gathered at a bar right near Faneuil Hall, and Kerry and his wife Teresa (whom he introduced as "Al Sharpton's girlfriend"!) came over to say hello. For those of you who didn't see the debate, the last question was along the lines of, "You all have gotten to know each other on the campaign trail -- who would you want to party with?" Sharpton replied, "Of all the interesting people I've met on this campaign, I'd have to choose Mrs. Kerry." Kerry was next and said, "I guess I'll choose the Reverend so I can keep an eye on my wife." I have to say, if nothing else, he's been getting in some of the best one-liners at the debates; between that and the several times I've seen him in person now, it's honestly beyond me how this guy ever got a reputation for being "aloof."

This was the first time I've seen Teresa Heinz Kerry at one of these events. While she has a reputation for being a real character, she actually spoke very quietly and sincerely about growing up under a dictatorship and the promise of American democracy. I could tell everyone really appreciated what she had to say, and it was appropriate to get serious for a few minutes after all the hooting and hollering and the relatively light-hearted debate.

Anyway, we got a nice write-up in the Brown Daily Herald. You can see my hand and jacket sleeve at the rightmost edge of the picture ;). Kerry did a picture with all the Brown students at one point, but I guess it mustn't have come out.

WHAT'S ALL THIS, THEN?

OK, since I've decided not to give up on this just yet, I'll post the obligatory "who am I and why am I doing this" intro....

I'm 26 years old, originally from St. Louis, and a fifth-year graduate student in the Classics Department at Brown University in Providence, RI, with a vague plan for specializing in ancient religion and an even vaguer plan for being ready to start my dissertation by next fall. At the moment I'm working on an independent project on Hesiod, taking a class on Roman epigraphy, and, for the first time, teaching my own class (Latin 31 - Grammar Review).

I'm also an amateur political junkie and currently a John Kerry supporter. I've been volunteering through his Boston office lately -- mostly canvassing and phone banking, so I can safely say that I've irritated more residents of New Hampshire in the past few months than the average citizen. A friend of mine and I have also been helping to get a Brown Students for Kerry group started, as well as spreading the word locally (though there's not much going on in Rhode Island yet).

Academia and politics have pretty much consumed my life lately, so I'm afraid there isn't much else to tell at the moment. As for why I'm doing this, I don't really have any better answer than that I thought it would be fun and it would give me a little incentive to keep a semi-regular record of any goings-on of minor interest.

That's about it for now. More soon. (Or not.)