Weekend Open Thread

Welcome to Memorial Day weekend! The weather isn’t too bad today and I’ll bet a lot of you are hanging out at the beach or some other fun spot. I’m just sitting at home, reading my copy of “The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet’s Nest” on my Nook. I probably won’t do anything until I finish it.

R.I.P. Dennis Hopper

Dennis Hopper, the maverick director and costar of the landmark 1969 counterculture film classic “Easy Rider” whose drug- and alcohol-fueled reputation as a Hollywood bad boy preceded his return to sobriety and a career resurgence in the films ” Hoosiers” and “Blue Velvet,” died Saturday. He was 74.

A longtime resident of Venice who also was known as a photographer, artist and collector of modern art, Hopper died at his home of complications from prostate cancer, said Alex Hitz, a friend of the family.

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In a more than five-decade acting career that was influenced early on by working with James Dean and studying at the Actors Studio, he made his film debut as one of the high school gang members who menace Dean in the 1955 classic “Rebel Without a Cause.”

Hopper went on to appear in more than 115 films, including “Giant,” “Cool Hand Luke,” “Hang ‘Em High,” “True Grit,” “Apocalypse Now,” “The American Friend,” “Rumble Fish,” “Speed,” “True Romance” and “Rivers Edge.”

Probably his most famous roles were in “Easy Rider,” “Apocalypse Now” and “Blue Velvet.” You can discuss your favorite Dennis Hopper films in the comments. Probably my favorite of his roles is as the villian in “Speed.”

Will the New York Times and the rightwing go after Illinois Senate candidate Mark Kirk as hard as they went after Richard Blumenthal? (I think you already know the answer to that question.)

Mark Kirk has a bit of a problem, that’s likely to soon be a very big problem. See, it turns out he’s been less than truthful about his own military service, and that it’s looking like it’s a bit of a habit with him.

In 2005, a political tussle in Ohio led to Rep. Jean Schmidt claiming that Rep. Mark Kirk (who’s currently running for Barack Obama’s former Senate seat) was a “veteran of Operation Iraqi Freedom.” It was news to me that any politician had served in Iraq by that time and, as it turned out, it wasn’t true. Mark Kirk was claiming on his campaign site to be “the only member of Congress to serve stateside during Operation Iraqi Freedom,” which was true, but on his official web site he claimed to be “the only member of Congress to serve in Operation Iraqi Freedom.” To say you have served in a campaign is precisely the sort of falsehood for which Richard Blumenthal has been castigated for the past few days.

Unfortunately for Kirk it’s not just a few mistatements about whether he served in Iraq. He also claimed to have gotten “Intelligence Officer of the Year” from the U.S. Navy. When that award was found not to exist he claimed to have gotten to have gotten a different award.

Yeah, so having been called on that, here is Kirk, explaining his made up award:

Upon a recent review of my records, I found that an award listed in my official biography was misidentified as “Intelligence Officer of the Year.” In fact, as noted in my Fitness Report, I was the “recipient of the Rufus Taylor Intelligence Unit of the Year award for outstanding support provided during Operation Allied Force.”

As kos found out and tweeted if you Google “Rufus Taylor Intelligence Unit of the Year”, there will be only two hits — both from Kirk websites. There’s a “Rufus Taylor Award for Excellence in Instruction,” but that’s it.

And that’s not all either. He also claims to have served in Afghanistan, which he did, technically. He did a 2-week training in Afghanistan but was not deployed there.