So much promise, shot to hell ?

According to this article, Obama's job approval rating is 58 percent in the latest Gallup poll. This is the below the average of all presidents since Eisenhower at the six-month point in their first terms. I'm not sure what the blog article is implying, but it seems to be saying that if historical trends hold, Obama will finish his presidency with job approval of 58 percent or less. This is presented as a "warning" to Obama. Really ?

Obama is the nation's first mulatto president, and took office in the early stages of what some people have described as the worst economic meltdown since the Great Depression. So maybe there are factors working in this situation that indicate it won't be business as usual. The article also mentions that Obama's job approval is the same as Richard Nixon's and one point higher than George W. Bush's at their six month points. Okay, W. is the worst president in history and Nixon was the worst until W., but both were elected to second terms. Maybe that's the precedent Republicans should actually be worried about.

Added 10:46 am, same day: On the topic of polls, here's one of the best I've seen lately. This is an online poll sponsored by a radical right-wing website, showing 78 percent of those responding would support S. Palin's run for president in 2012. An interesting coincidence is that 81 percent of those participating in the poll voted for McCain and Wondermom in 2008. Random sampling ? Newsmax plans to release the findings of their poll to major media organizations; that should be good for a week's worth of headlines as the Palin juggernaut is launched, and a lot of deluded chatter on AM radio.

Added 4:09 pm, same day: More poll palaver here. Rich Lowry of NRO brings back memories. There was a time only a few years ago when I spent part of nearly every day scrounging around the internet for updated polls showing W's newest job approval rating. Every time he dropped a few points my heart soared, and when he edged back up a few points (as he almost always did), I'd be disgusted the rest of the day. That's how life is when you can't stomach the president and are convinced he's not legitimately occupying the White House. In 2004 I learned the hard way that job approval ratings don't necessarily predict election outcomes, and by the time W settled more or less permanently into the 34 percent range (beloved only by the lowest of the bottomfeeders), the damage was already beyond repair. Anyway, I enjoy watching conservatives going through all the same rituals of despair that I practiced back then.

Friday Food Fights and Football

Republicans are always pissing and moaning about the federal government running roughshod over the rights of the individual states -- and then we get horse shit like this. So what's it gonna be ? Personally, I still think Texas should amend its laws to eliminate the right to carry a concealed handgun, or restrict the right to law enforcement officers. Texans should wear their guns proudly, like Randolph Scott or Rory Calhoun. I know I'm not gonna mess with some old granny lady at the mall who's packing matching Smith & Wessons. Bottom line, every state should pass and enforce the gun laws its residents will tolerate, and traveling Texans need to adapt. If they can't hack it, stay home. Yeah, Cornyn, I'm talking to you... dumbass.

While we're on the subject of much ado about nothing, we have this situation with Gates . I'm getting too old to waste time being outraged over every little thing, and Obama's comment that police stupidity was a factor in the incident ain't worth getting in an uproar about. That's just me, though. I wasted too many minutes thinking about the ignorant dipshit remarks of the 43rd president, and I'm not falling into that trap with the 44th.

Football season is rapidly approaching, and I'm ambivalent. Last year was the first season since about 1968 during which I didn't watch a single televised football game, college or pro, from beginning to end. I just couldn't stay interested, and as I've written previously, I'm currently a fan without a decent team to root for.

The football magazines start hitting newsstands in late May, and in past years I'd buy every preview issue I could get my hands on, usually a dozen or more in all. The season would be over before I got around to reading them, and they'd eventually be stacked with all the unread issues from previous years. This year, I resolved to break that habit and limit my magazine purchases to Texas Football, the Sporting News national college and NFL season previews, and the Sports Illustrated annual football preview issues. No Big Twelve Conference preview issues, and only the two NFL previews.

Old habits are hard to break, but I ended a tradition in 2007 when I decided not to buy the Texas A&M football media guide. I started collecting those in the early 1970s while Emory Bellard was still around. Over the years, the media guides grew and got fancier, to the point that they were about the size of a coffee table book and cost about 25 dollars each.

Don't get me wrong, though. If the Aggies were going 10-2 or even 9-3 on a regular basis, I'd still be collecting their media guides. They aren't, and I don't. Preseason media prognostications have A&M sucking hind tit, finishing 6th of six in the Big 12 South behind Baylor. I've spent hours thinking and writing about the decline and fall of Aggie football, but I never would have predicted they'd sink to the current less-than-mediocre depths.

On the other hand, I have a new flat-panel HD plasma TV set, so I expect to watch some games this fall. The longhorns are forecast to win the national championship, or at least play for it. I'll probably watch their game with OU and skip the mismatches. I've adopted Southern Cal as my favorite college team, and will watch as many of their games as I can pick up in the Texas viewing area. I can't get behind the Dallas Cowboys until they (a) play in a Super Bowl, or (b) get rid of Jerry Jones, or (c) both. Since those are all unlikely options, I've adopted the New England Patriots as the NFL team I'm partial to.

Shoot 'em up

Michael Mann directed three of the best crime movies I ever saw (Thief, Heat and Manhunter), and one of the best historical epics based on American literature (Last of the Mohicans). A rule of thumb that works for me when choosing movies to see in theaters is to follow directors with a consistent track record, and Michael Mann has one. Which is how I ended up in the neighborhood cineplex at 11:15 am today to see Public Enemies.

Public Enemies probably won't be at the top of the list when major film awards get passed out next spring, but it's a hell of a good genre picture. It's based on the criminal career of John Dillinger and his pursuit by Melvin Purvis and the FBI. The story was told in the 1970s by John Milius in his film Dillinger, starring the late, beloved Warren Oates in the title role and the late, beloved Ben Johnson as Purvis. Harry Dean Stanton played a gang member, who spoke my all-time favorite movie line: "Goddammit, things aren't working out for me today."

I thought the Warren Oates version of the Dillinger story was as good as any gangster film I'd seen up to that point, but in its own way, Public Enemies matches up well against it. The movie was apparently shot using high-definition digital video cameras instead of film, and the photography features incredible amounts of minute detail. Johnny Depp plays Dillinger, and in some shots you can count the hairs on his head and the pores in his skin.

Like Hilary Swank, Johnny Depp has grown on me. It seems like he devoted his early career to playing bizarre characters in strange movies but as he's aged, he's begun to deliver restrained, low-key performances that I've admired. I think Finding Neverland was the turning point for me.

Since this is essentially a cops-and-robbers movie, a lot of ammo gets burned, especially since most of the characters are carrying Thompson submachine guns. The violence is realistic, without the excesses of the usual summer comic book movies. The last scene was poignant enough to put one of those lumps in my throat. All in all, I recommend Public Enemies for theatrical viewing.

Cut 'em off

I was reading the online newspapers this morning, my usual Sunday ritual, and came across references by several conservatives on the opinion pages to Supreme Court nominee Sotomayor and her desire to see all white males castrated. I thought I'd seen everything, but this one was new to me.

Thanks to Google, I was able to check out "sotomayor white male castration" and discovered the origins of this widely circulated right-wing fantasy.

I've reached one conclusion -- castration of some white males would benefit the species by taking their genetic material out of circulation. Yeah, you know which ones I'm talking about.

The wisdom of youth

If only her daddy was as smart as his daughter.

Added 4:22 pm, same day: If the Senate Judiciary Committee was made up of all Democrats, it would be as worthless an assembly of human beings as you could find. When you consider that so many of its members are Republicans, it makes the committee even more worthless, impossible as that seems.

Sotomayor in sessions

I was out driving around in the heat this afternoon, listening to the car radio, and decided to skip the usual AM radio crap. Instead I flipped over to National Public Radio on FM and listened to some of Sotomayor's interrogation by the Senate Judiciary Committee. It was the first time I'd actually heard her voice, and she sounded like a pretty bright individual.

The senator attempting to make her life miserable today was Jeff Sessions of Alabama. Whenever I'm compiling lists of the most repulsive Republicans, Jeff is usually nowhere to be seen because he's been too insignificant to make much of a ripple on the surface of the pond. Sort of like John Cornyn was for a long time. If what I heard today is an indication of what this worthless dogturd has to offer, he'll never be overlooked on future lists.

When I was in the public welfare business I always thought of Alabama and Mississippi as buffers. As long as those two were around, it was a fairly safe bet Texas would never hit the bottom of the barrel. Bammer and Miz-sippy would always be there to soften the landing when Texas began another of its drives to be ranked 50th of fifty. And now, as long as Alabama keeps re-electing Jeff Sessions, Texas will never have the worst United States Senator.

Added 11:42 am, Wednesday: Here's a surprise. The National Rifle Association and the Southern Baptist Convention have serious misgivings about Sotomayor. Hmmm... she's looking better to me all the time.