Possibly the weirdest business surrounding the imminent release of Michael Moore's Farenheit 9/11: "Fahrenheit 9/11 gets help offer from Hezbollah."

"No doubt, most Americans have heard more about the president's dog and jogging schedule than where their elected representatives came down on these votes. But that merely reflects the pathetic state of American journalism, not the gravity or consequences of the decisions. No matter how much we tell ourselves these votes and decisions don't matter, they do. No matter how many times reporters tell us semen-stained blue dresses and gossip are more important than lies about war, peace, poverty and corruption, they're not." David J. Sirota in "When Ignorance Isn't Bliss," from In These Times via AlterNet.

Poem of the Day Dept.:

"And I hunched in its belly till my wet fur froze." Randall Jarrell's "The Death of the Ball Turret Gunner."

June 16 is the centennial of Bloomsday, the day on which James Joyce's novelUlysses takes place. (Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao is a Joynce fan?)

Didn't Hitler start to behave erratically--ordering high-ranking officers in the field to shoot themselves, spending more and more time with his dogs--when it became clearer and clearer that the Third Reich was failing and the Allies were going to nail his ass? "Bush's Erratic Behavior Worries White House Aides" at Capitol Hill Blue. (There's a follow-up here at counterpunch.org.)

Don't Hold Your Breath Dept.:

"If the wave of support driven by Reagan's death does lead to a shift in Bush Administration policy, 'it would be a terrific boon to the field' of Alzheimer's research, said Fred Gage, professor in the Laboratory of Genetics at the Salk Institute in San Diego." From "Stem cells for Alzheimer's?" at The Scientist.

"In a way, Reagan was W's father. The macho swagger, the studied anti-intellectualism, the infatuation with military spending, and the overriding concern for corporations and the rich--all these Bush has inherited from Reagan. . . . . The only difference is that Reagan knew how to read his lines." Thus Matthew Rothschild, comparing the now dead Uncle Ronnie (but are they sure? has the coroner been consulted, and is the Gipper not only merely dead, is he really quite sincerely dead?) to George Junior, at The Progressive.

"The Last Noble Defender of the American Republic" is Gore Vidal, in this interview from Democracy Now!