11/2/04: Why is this man (possibly) smiling?

Because nobody can figure out his connection to the world.  He's a shaggy ghost, lurking around the darkened corners of your search bars, waiting to be discovered. He's a free man; nobody's been able to pin him down. He's sitting in a cafe somewhere, reading about soccer and ordering a juicy, meaty entree. He's a shadow, and nobody can touch him.  He's your Osama.

Look, I didn't want it to turn out this way. I wanted to proclaim somebody the winner of round 3 of the google image search game and move on to round 4 (if necessary).  I didn't even think this latest one was the hardest.  The game was supposed to be fun, not frustrating. I can see this one has turned the corner, and I apologize.  If nobody gets it by 10pm Tuesday, it will be considered unsolvable and we'll move on.

I don't know whether that will be considered a failure for the game, or a success. I haven't played, so I don't know if it's any fun at all.  I can imagine it would be pretty goddamn satisfying to stumble across this guy's mug after a full day of fruitless searching.  It's probably equally frustrating not finding it.  Whatever, you've got one more day to track him down. And the good thing about this game is you can't just cheat by using google.  I know a lot of you have given up, and I know when the answer is revealed, you're going to be like, "WTF? That was impossible." But I think someone will get it yet. Keep those guesses coming, but submit them in today's comments section please.  You can do it.

Another reason to vote against George Bush: he doesn't learn.  Remember his famous "bring 'em on" line to the insurgents in Iraq? Well, they brought it on.  And I'm not saying his cowboy braggadocio was directly responsible for the surge in attacks in the months following the "end" of the Iraq war (976 U.S. soldiers have been killed since that crotch-stuffed, Top Gun-style "mission accomplished" victory celebration, as opposed to 138 before).  But it doesn't help.  Taunting terrorists and loony birds into taking shots at our soldiers is no way to run a war. It's one thing if you have the entire country under control and you have the support of the people outside of maybe 12 guys running around with machetes. In that case, you say, "Bring 'em on." But it's now a year and a half later, and we still don't have the country under control, not by a long shot. If I were stationed in Iraq with car bombs going off every day, and I read that "bring it on" bullshit, I don't think I'd be giving my vote to W.

So after all the embarrassment the White House has suffered as a result of Bush's loose-lipped arrogance -- and I find this arrogance, this flippancy with other people's lives, doubly maddening considering the coward NEVER SERVED IN COMBAT -- you would think he would learn to clam it, to stop erroneously bragging about how invulnerable we are.  But nope, here's Bush talking about the pie-in-the-sky missile defense system we are implementing.  It's going into effect immediately, despite the fact that it is far from fully operational.  So what does Georgie say?

"We say to those tyrants who believe they can blackmail America and the free world -- you fire, we're going to shoot it down," President Bush said in August. The Pentagon said the system would be deemed operational by year's end.

But critics have strong doubts about the project, a descendant of the "Star Wars" shield idea envisioned by President Ronald Reagan in the 1980s that even the Pentagon admits will have only rudimentary capabilities initially.

So Jorge, stick a sock in it.  Enough with the macho posturing.  Shut the fuck up. We're voting your ass out today anyway.

That last part is just my own premature boastfulness.  I am very unsure what will happen in this election.  Part of me feels like a lot of Kerry's voters haven't shown up in the polls.  The cellphone  users, the newly registered young voters, and some of the people I work with -- I think they'll be heard from this election day. If I am right about this, Pete's longstanding confidence may prove prescient (see prediction #43). I hope so.  But as long as we live in a country where Leno beats Letterman, I think Bush has a great chance of winning.   Not that Letterman 2004 is Letterman 1986, but he's still the clear choice in that time slot.  And that's how I feel about Kerry.  Clear choice. Bush has done a bad job by any measure.  Vote his ass out. But people still watch Leno. That's where we're at right now.  I don't get it. The good news is the gap is closing. People are unhappy in their Leno/Bush world.  Maybe they'll do something about it.

If not, just sit back and watch "Dazed and Confused."*

And remember, if you want some top-shelf tunes to take you through a stressful evening, B. New will be sitting in at his old radio station, WRUV, and spinning some excellent shit from 8-10pm. Check it out.
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* Although the word on the street is the new Dazed/Fast Times party pack sucks balls.  Apparently they totally threw together the Dazed and Confused DVD, without Linklater's input.  He's pissed because he's been trying to do a special edition for years and they wouldn't let him.