Well this one was actually better than I expected! Mos Def plays a criminal who wants to change and start a bakery in Seattle, and Bruce Willis plays the cop who has to drive him 16 blocks to be a witness in court by 10am. The movie, almost playing completely in real time, takes a turn when some people want to kill the witness.

Now, Mos Def is certainly a kind of annoying character, so we're not all that surprised that someone would want him dead, but it turns out to get kind of complicated, and Mos Def does a wonderful job of being annoying yet also mildly endearing. It's a balancing act, and I think he handles it well.

Bruce Willis is as good as always, and the supporting cast, while completely one-dimensional, get the job done. I can't say I ever felt too much suspense in wondering who would live or die (except one scene at the finish), but in the end, 16 Blocks does what it attempts to do: it entertains, lets the details of the story unfold slowly, and is better than most of the other crap that came out earlier this year. Good movie.

I did my first Grad Nite last night. It was pretty darn fun actually. I only had to work until 3 AM though so it wasn't too bad. The only problem was that this Grad Nite wasn't even close to the attendence of every other one to come. It consisted of schools from out of town and out of state and there were only about 2,000 people in the park. We are expecting upwards of 25,000 for our bigger nights. I walked around the park a bit and I have never seen it so empty, even during other private parties. It was pretty darn cool. In case you are wondering, I still haven't heard about the lead position. I was told hopefully sometime this weekend, so here's hoping.

Stupid Evil Bastard: In The Eyes of President Bush we are all suspected terrorists

Les has some good insights on the whole NSA phone thing, including this little bit from Think Progress:

Such conduct appears to be illegal and could make the telco firms liable for tens of billions of dollars. Here’s why:

1. It violates the Stored Communications Act. The Stored Communications Act, Section 2703(c), provides exactly five exceptions that would permit a phone company to disclose to the government the list of calls to or from a subscriber: (i) a warrant; (ii) a court order; (iii) the customer’s consent; (iv) for telemarketing enforcement; or (v) by “administrative subpoena.” The first four clearly don’t apply. As for administrative subpoenas, where a government agency asks for records without court approval, there is a simple answer – the NSA has no administrative subpoena authority, and it is the NSA that reportedly got the phone records.

2. The penalty for violating the Stored Communications Act is $1000 per individual violation. Section 2707 of the Stored Communications Act gives a private right of action to any telephone customer “aggrieved by any violation.” If the phone company acted with a “knowing or intentional state of mind,” then the customer wins actual harm, attorney’s fees, and “in no case shall a person entitled to recover receive less than the sum of $1,000.”

(The phone companies might say they didn’t “know” they were violating the law. But USA Today reports that Qwest’s lawyers knew about the legal risks, which are bright and clear in the statute book.)

3. The Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act doesn’t get the telcos off the hook. According to USA Today, the NSA did not go to the FISA court to get a court order. And Qwest is quoted as saying that the Attorney General would not certify that the request was lawful under FISA. So FISA provides no defense for the phone companies, either.

In other words, for every 1 million Americans whose records were turned over to NSA, the telcos could be liable for $1 billion in penalties, plus attorneys fees. You do the math.

Gringo writes about the issue here. Like him, I'm surprised I'm not hearing more about this all over the place.