Links O' Plenty

Just a bunch of links today, so I'll get right into it.

1.) The Funny. Will Ferrell made a short video with his pal Adam McKay that's been blowing up on the internet. Five millions views since it debuted on FunnyorDie.com. In it, a down on his luck Will Ferrell is visited by the landlord who is none too happy with Ferrell's failure to pay his rent. The landlord is played by McKay's 2-year old daughter, Pearl, and though her baby dialogue is subtitled, she isn't just blabbing nonsense. she's actually saying words like, "Pay me now, bitch!" and "I work too hard" and "I'm going to smack you". Anyway, it's funny. Take a look here. And click here for McKay talking about how the clip came to be. And here for some "Pearl the Landlord" attention from People Magazine.

2.) The Illuminating. For you fans of The Colbert Report, TalkingPointsMemo has some very cool backstage footage of Colbert explaining his schtick to Sen. John Kerry before they do the interview. As far as I know, this is the only video that exists of Stephen Colbert explaining his character, the premise of his show, and how guests should handle his character. Very cool. Most of it is a limo interview with Josh Marshall talking to Kerry about his new book on the environment, but if you want to go right to the Colbert part, click here, let the video load, and then adjust the cursor-thingie until the clock reads.0 2:05 or so.

3.) The Impressive. Dave Chappelle performed for about six hours at the Laugh Factory in Hollywood on Sunday night, breaking the record for longest performance at that establishment, breaking Dane Cook's recent nearly four hour performance. If that's the same place I went to see Eddie Griffin ramble through his set, then I'm not sure it's Dane Cook's record Chappelle broke but Griffin's. That performance felt like it had to have been 5 hours. At least.

4.) The Shameful. You remember that so-called Voter I.D. bill Georgia passed a couple years agi? I wrote about it here way back in September of 2005. Intended by racist whites in the Georgia legislature to suppress minority voting in the name of tamping down on voter fraud, the bill passed, but has since been rejected by court after court as unconstitutional. Jurists recognized the law for what it was: a modern day poll tax straight out of the Jim Crow era. Well, one of the revelations coming out of the US Attorney scandal is the degree to which the Bush administration has purged the Justice department of competent professionals and replaced them with Bible-thumping "loyal Bushies", including a lot of folks who graduated from Regent University, Pat Robertson's bottom-tiered Jesus Freak Factory. Monica Goodling, the #3 person at the Justice Department was one of these Regent grads. She also just resigned after pleading the Fifth to avoid testifying before Congress. (According to Regent's website, upwards of 150 Regent graduates work in the Justice Department.) Anyway, the purging of the Bush Justice Department hasn't been relegated to just US Attorneys, but also the Civil Rights Division of the DOJ. Bush and Karl Rove, as obsessed with suppressing minority voting as the Georgia legislature, signed off on Georgia's Voter I.D. bill even though all but one of the career lawyers in the "voting section" of the Civil Rights division of Justice called it what it was and rejected it. Those people were pressured out and replaced.

But the choice quote from the TPM story is this:

"Here's one thing that the Bush political appointees insisted didn't raise any red flags. The sponsor of the bill, Georgia state Rep. Sue Burmeister, told voting section staff that "if there are fewer black voters because of this bill, it will only be because there is less opportunity for fraud," and that "when black voters in her black precincts are not paid to vote, they do not go to the polls.""

Once again I'm reminded of how difficult it can be to be a proud Georgian while we're all saddled with labels like ignorant, redneck and racist. People like Sue Burmeister and all the folks who voted for and supported that bill, are doing their part to make sure Georgians have no chance of escaping those labels in my lifetime. Anyway, there's more background on this facet of the story here. TPM is really doing some fantastic journalism. We need more guys like Josh Marshall to more fully document this poisoning of our Federal government.

4.) The Very Cool. The Pulitzers were announced on Monday, and my man Cormac McCarthy's novel "The Road" won the Pulitzer for Best Fiction. Did you know that the trade paperback is only about $9 at your local chain bookstore? Now that it's won a major award, won't you buy it and read it? It's very good and reads very fast. Then we can talk about it. And then you can watch Oprah's interview with McCarthy on a day to be announced.

5.) The Head-Scratching. Edward Norton has been tapped to play Bruce Banner in the latest Hulk movie. This sounds like it could be a really good idea, but then again, I thought Ang Lee was going to make a great Hulk movie.

Okay. Enough links. Enjoy your day.