Many young children dream of one day being president, but those of us who reach adulthood without going through some bizarre, cryptically homoerotic Skull and Bones initiation rite know the chances of that happening are slim. There is, however, a way for average folks like us to share in the presidential spotlight without any of the burdens of money, political connections, a well-run campaign, or a dead hooker-free personal history. Before the votes are cast this November, I hope to live this dream: to be a presidential candidate’s political liability.

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I am alternately horrified and enthralled by the impending downfall of Western Civilization, a process I occasionally like to prod along in some small, but I hope, ultimately meaningful, way.

In various print columns I have both decried the commercialization of Christmas, and urged the indiscriminate bombing of one or more Balkan nations by our next president; condemned the reckless egomania of athletes, and demanded my own fawning cult of personality; admonished our current president for his messianic ineptitude, and cited that same ineptitude as an inspiration to my career as a writer. So while I may find reality television and its corrosive effect on the American psyche alarming, I can appreciate its intrinsic value as a yardstick to measure just how close we’ve gotten to the absolute bottom of the barrel.

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Last night’s dramatic hat trick by Hillary Clinton does not bode well for Obama, or for America at large. Oh sure, if the democratic process is allowed to work its magic without interference from the Clinton political machine, Obama should still secure the nomination. Super Tuesday, the Sequel did not damage Obama’s chance at victory so much as it did his theme of hope. (more…)

For some time now, a friend and I have noted and discussed the bizarre gender hang-ups and skewed sense of misogyny in Phoenix movie critic Peter Keough’s reviews. This past week, he truly outdid himself in his Oscar predictions roundup, decrying rampant misogyny throughout the list of potential Best Actress nominees, and finding nary a positive female character on the screen. (more…)

When Eric asked me to compile a list of my top five movies of 2007, I thought long and hard about it—if by “long,” you mean “the amount of time it takes me to make a sandwich,” and by “hard,” you mean “just enough so as not to distract me from sandwich-making.” As I spend most of my time drinking bourbon and screaming at the television while Dana Perino sweats and squirms her way through another awkward press conference, I did not have the time to truly indulge in the smorgasbord of cinematic delights offered up in limited release these past twelve months. (Plus, I was already rather full from that sandwich.) My final conclusion was that I had simply not seen enough films this year to accurately compile a top five list. The solution, of course, is to present you, the loyal Daily Dose browser who should probably be doing some actual work for once instead of piddling away company time on the internet, with this wildly inaccurate, and oftentimes wholly imagined, list of 2007’s best movies. (more…)

Now that we’ve all settled in to weather the storm, made it through the traffic, and thawed out the starving, urine-soaked children, it’s time to reflect on the way Rhode Islanders reacted with characteristic aplomb and grace under fire to a winter storm that, while unusual in its speed and intensity, is not entirely outside our normal frame of reference.

Seriously, what the fuck happened yesterday?

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The New York Times reports today that support is waning in the House for a Democratic sponsored resolution condemning the mass killing of Armenians by Ottoman Turks between 1915 and 1917. While many of us agree that the systematic slaughter of hundreds of thousands of people based on race or ethnicity is to be frowned upon, this bill has been the source of some controversy. The Turkish government tends to be overly touchy about being labeled the perpetrator of a genocide, and has repeatedly stated that relations between the US and Turkey could be severely damaged by the passage of this condemnation. President Bush has lobbied strongly against the bill and called on House Speaker Nancy Pelosi to prevent it from reaching a floor vote. (more…)

Column: The Malcontent by John Taraborelli
It seems that there has been a rash of protests gone wrong lately. The Bush years have provided us with countless protest-worthy offenses, and certainly protesting, and the right to it, has played a vital role in our country’s history. Sometimes the ugly abuses of people in power require the citizens to speak out, often against popular sentiment, but what about when the protesters are just as ugly and offensive? What about when they’re just plain stupid? Like this:

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