Pran Kurup

Movie Review: Jaane Tu Ya Jaane Na

Title: Jaane Tu Ya Jaane Na
Starring: Imran Khan, Genelia D’Souza
Language: Hindi
Direction: Abbas Tyrewala

Imran Khan – another chocolate hero, another Khan, enters Bollywood, this time introduced by none other than the chocolate hero of the late eighties (now quite transformed) Aamir Khan, who produced this film. Imran Khan, the hero also happens to be Aamir’s nephew. The film also marks the entry of south Indian actress Genelia D’Souza to Bollywood.

There is little that is new in the story of this film. Young couple, great friends in college, unsure if its love, try to set it each other up with others, and eventually come together. The positive of this film lies in the “treatment” and the Director, Abbas Tyrewala (this happens to be his debut film) deserves plenty of credit for this. He has turned a relatively common theme into an engaging sequence of events, interspersed with trendy numbers by A.R. Rahman, and plenty of comedy that delightfully blends with the story line. The entire film is shown in flashback as a bunch of good friends narrate the story to a newcomer to the group as they wait for the lead couple at the airport. Naseeruddin Shah and Rathna Pathak Shah as the heroes’ parents and Paresh Rawal in a brief cameo as a cop are truly hilarious.

The two lead stars are perfect choices and do justice to their roles. Imran Khan is as “chocolate” as it gets. “Fair and chikna”, the Iranian-looking young man is in all likelihood bound to become a teenage heart throb. Time will tell if he can grow beyond that and make a lasting career for himself in Bollywood much like his uncle, Aamir Khan. While his acting talents were never really put to test in this film in a big way, it was a refreshing change to see a new hero minus the muscles and the manic dancing skills. Genalia the heroine is the more seasoned performer of the two given her experience in south Indian films. The two appear to share good on-screen chemistry and this amply helps the film succeed. Barring the annoying frequent close-up of the friends in the film, the overall quality of the photography and film-making was impressive.

Overall, Jaane Tu Jaane Na is an entertaining film that is definitely worth watching.

Aamir Khan – The Businessman

Aamir Khan appears to have picked a perfect launch pad for his nephew. After Dil Chahta Hai and Rang de Basanti (two films built around friendship) he bet again on the theme of friendship. With another hit here very much on the cards, he sure seems to have a pulse on the Bollywood audience. With an all new cast, a director making his debut, and a smattering of veteran stars, perhaps his only “big ticket item” as producer of the film was A.R Rahman. A big flop would have hardly caused him a dent. From a purely business point of view this film is a business venture that is likely to pay off big time. Aamir Khan’s last film which featured himself and a bunch of no name actors followed a similar business formula. This time, he seems to have repeated the same approach again with plenty of success. Clearly, Aamir Khan is an impressive movie star with plenty of business acumen!

Feelin’ Miserable? Watch this!

Check out this video featuring Barry Schwartz , an American psychologist. Schwartz is the Dorwin Cartwright Professor of Social Theory and social action at Swarthmore College.

The talk is brilliant and worth watching/listening. He talks about how to have choices is good but how it also tends to make people miserable! (Click on the link to the post to see the video while you are still on my site)

Movie Review: Kung Fu Panda

Title: Kung Fu Panda

Animated film from Dreamworks

I remember a time when I could not imagine being able to sit through an entire animated film. Over time this view has completely changed. Many of these films are so superbly made that its hard to choose between them if you ever had to.

Animated films bring together a remarkable blend of technology, story-telling, and artistic talents. And Kung Fu Panda is brilliant on all these fronts. It is cute, funny and perfect for kids (and adults who like animation films). Without getting into too much detail, the story revolves around a clumsy panda who becomes a martial arts experts (the “chosen one”) and saves a countryside from an evil leopard. Along the way is plenty of comedy and brilliant graphical effects combined with some really cool dialogue — “He was so deadly, his enemies would go blind from his awesomeness”, “There is no secret, its all about what you believe”, “Yesterday is history, tomorrow is a mystery, today is a gift that’s why its called present”.

Check this one out, especially if you are looking to take the kids to a movie. You won’t be disappointed.

Hats off to Dhoni For Opting Out

MS Dhoni chose to pass on the upcoming Test series in Sri Lanka and deserves plenty of praise for this. It is perhaps the first time in Indian cricket history that a player so young and on the rise has willingly stepped aside from a Test tour. Firstly, it reflects a clear sense of self-confidence in the man. Secondly, it is a sign that he suffers from no insecurity whatsoever. A welcome sign in India’s ODI and T20 captain and possibly future Test captain. It appears that he has come to realize that with the cricket being played virtually throughout the year, it is impossible to feature in every game and still maintain top quality performance. Besides he has come to the realization that maximizing participation in the short term could come at the expense of longevity at the top in the long run. A shrewd sportsman’s brain at work, no doubt.

Interestingly, Dhoni’s decision comes in the wake of Ricky Ponting’s recent comments about Test cricket being under threat. Dhoni decision does raise some interesting questions. Has Dhoni started a trend where the younger generation (which thus far swears by Test cricket as being the ultimate) begins to focus more on the shorter versions of the game? Is Test cricket going to be relegated to veterans cricket of sorts? Does the money tied to Test cricket need to be increased by the Board? Does Test cricket need some fresh thinking to come up with new rules — four day Tests, limited number of overs etc.

No matter what the repercussions of this decision, Dhoni deserves credit for taking this step. The likes of Saurav Ganguly who still aspire to drag themselves into the ODI team would do well to learn from Dhoni.

Firefox 3: Still Cool, Problems Persist and Btw, It Ain’t Exactly Non-profit!

Firefox 3 has been released recently with a lot of fanfare as usual — Record breaking downloads , data about increasing market share , the admiration and praise for the open source movement, among other things.

I have been an active user of Firefox ever since its launch. IE 6.0 was great but IE 7.0 was awful. Thus my preference for Firefox has been further strengthened over the years. So when Firefox 3.0 was released I promptly downloaded it and started to use it. Here are a few of my observations.

Memory problem is still very much there

I was hoping that in this release the memory issue will be addressed. Though I have read claims about the fix, I didn’t see it working first hand on Windows XP. I find that Firefox 3 hogs memory (as you add tabs) and then suddenly freezes. Once this occurs, “killing” the browser window is quite a struggle. Firefox 2 is more stable and reliable in this regard. This is easily the biggest Firefox 3.0 weakness in my opinion. It happened to me too frequently to be ignored despite the fact that I usually open no more than 4-5 tabs.

Saving Login/Password does not work, sometimes

I noticed this problem on the Meebo site. Despite checking the box that says remember me, you have to enter your password every single time. This works just fine in Firefox 2.0. (This maybe a problem with Meebo rather than the browser?)

Saving the tabs is very useful

If you accidentally delete a tab, the History menu maintains the recently deleted tabs, making it so much easier to recover deleted tabs. In Firefox 2 you had to install a plugin to do this for you.

Cool Address Bar

As always there are cool features to excite the technically inclined. The coolest of these being the address bar. If you visit a site frequently you can just enter the site name instead of the entire URL. The browser maintains this information. In short, its cool and saves you some typing.

Look and Feel of IE

Firefox fans are not going to like this. Firefox 3.0 has an IE 7.0 feel to it. By this I don’t mean specific UI features. I mean the overall feel. There is a certain “lightness” to it which reminds one of IE 7.0. It will be interesting to see Microsoft return with IE 8.0 later this year.

You can read a full list of new Firefox 3.0 features here . There is no question that Firefox 3.0 is easily far ahead of IE 7.0 in its usability.

Finally, Some Serious food for thought

Here is a snippet from a recent article in the Mercury News.

The code for the latest version of the browser received contributions from about 800 folks, only a fraction of whom are employed by Mozilla. And thousands more people download daily updates to the beta versions to test and critique them.

Mozilla funds all this primarily through money it gets from a revenue-share agreement with Google for searches conducted through the browser. The balance comes from contributions from its community and foundations. In the most recent year of financial data available, Mozilla had revenue of $66,840,850 in 2006 compared with expenses of $19,776,193. It paid 90 people in some fashion that year to work on Firefox.

Statements like the above just spread the myth that Firefox is all non-profit and we are living in this great new world where an army of strangers come together for the common good of computer users around the globe. While there might be some element of truth to it, the reality though is that there is the Mozilla Corporation (which is for-profit) while the Mozilla Foundation is non-profit. The for-profit organization rakes in the moolah and pays its CEO (500K+ in annual salary) and other executives big bucks. 90-odd people who work on the project are hopefully well-paid as well while the 800-odd out there get little or nothing in return (besides some recognition, possibly some web presence and maybe a couple of T-shirts).

Most of Mozilla’s revenues come from its advertising arrangement with Google. The Firefox browser with a growing market share is a direct challenge to Microsoft’s IE. Under these circumstances, it is hard to argue against claims that Mozilla is no more than a front for Google’s in its battle against Microsoft. Frankly, it is surprising that Microsoft is not doing more to dispel this myth about Mozilla.

A cash rich organization like Mozilla would do well to monetarily recognize those 800-odd (starving?) developers around the world. Next, the media should stop spreading this myth about Mozilla’s non-profit status.

Last but not the least, the Mozilla should be forced to explicitly outline the distinction between its for-profit and non-profit entities instead of high falutin’ statements on its website like “We’re a public benefit organization dedicated not to making money but to improving the way people everywhere experience the Internet” and “In the end, the Mozilla community, organization and technology is all focused on a single goal: making the Internet better for everyone.”

The Mozilla website in its current form helps further this myth that sections of the media seem to be spreading already. This is wrong, unfair, and blatantly misleading, though I still love the Firefox browser.

Movie Review: Dasavatharam – A Ten-fold Disaster

Title : Dasavatharam (Meaning: Ten Avatars)

Starring : Kamalahasan, Asin

Direction : K. S. Ravikumar

The thought of a movie where a single actor plays ten different roles does raise some basic questions about how it might even be possible to weave a sensible story (unless of course it is a comedy like Naya Din Nai Raat). Watching the film just confirms the worst of these fears. Dasavatharam is a poorly concocted, meaningless film, with Kamalahasan playing ten roles in addition to being responsible for the story, the screenplay and the dialogues.

There is no real story as such. It begins with a twelfth century clash between Shiva and Vishnu devotees resulting in Kamalahasan’s first character being tied to the Vishnu deity and drowned to death. The visuals for these scenes are impressive. Fast forward a few centuries and Kamalahasan is an Indian scientist in the US and an American CIA agent. The scientist is busy chasing a computer chip that contains some biological weapon. The CIA agent is hired by the goons and wants the weapon too. What follows is a weather-beaten cat and mouse game between the CIA agent and the scientist where every other scene has Kamalahasan in a new look. Along the way the scientist picks up Asin for company. The love story of the film is almost forgotten and concludes in a lame and predictable manner at the end. The story comes to an end with a Tsunami and the deity from the 12th century being swept ashore. Perhaps the movie makers could not think of a better way to end the film. The Tsunami scenes are extremely well shot and comparable to some of the real shots you find on Youtube. There are references to the existence of God at various points in the film but such intellectual topics of discussion in the midst of intense “masala” seems obviously out of place and completely lacking in depth.

Kamalahasan plays George Bush, a Terminator look-alike (supposedly a CIA agent, when a stunt man would have been a more appropriate characterization), an old woman, a scientist, a priest, a villager, a singer (Daler Mehndi type), inspector Naidu, a Japanese martial arts expert, and an Afghani. Every time a new character appeared on the screen I found myself busy trying to figure out if it was Kamalahasan in a new make up! Of all the roles in this film, the role of Inspector Naidu was by far the best for the simple reason that the makeup was still believable and Kamalahasan was playing his age. The scenes and dialogues featuring Inspector Naidu were easily the most enjoyable part of the film.

State of the art makeup techniques have made it possible for near complete facial transformation. However, the more dramatic the transformation the less interesting it gets after the momentary “wow” factor. In fact, it is a lot like wearing a Halloween mask! This destroys the seriousness of the film and takes away the focus from the main story, if there was ever one.

It is not in the least bit surprising that this film ran into trouble with religious Hindus. For most part of the film a Hindu deity is tossed around under the pretext of having a dangerous chip inside it. Unfortunately for the censors if those parts of the film were curtailed the movie makers would have had to return to the drawing board. In hindsight, that might have not been a bad thing after all.

Asin does a decent job as the conventional big mouth brahmin girl. The rest are all mere passengers with little to do. One of them looked like yesteryear comedian, Nagesh while another looked like KR Vijaya, (another an old timer) or maybe they were Kamlalahasan himself with makeup. Mallika Sherwat tries her best to provide her personal brand of sizzle. Himesh Reshammaiyya’s music is nothing to write home about. Kamalahasan should have handled the music too (I think he sang one of the songs in the film). He might have done as well if not better than Himmesh.

It is sad to see Kamalahasan trying so hard to impress when it is an accepted fact that he is one of India’s top actors. It is no secret that big stars insist on dominating every frame in their films. But Kamalahasan takes this obsession to a whole new level. There are several scenes involving two or three characters all played by Kamalahasan and with no other actor in sight. If you had any doubts that Kamalahasan’s megalomania and eternal self-obsession, then this movie should put those doubts to rest. It should not come as a surprise if Kamalahasan were to make a movie where he plays every single role in the film.

Overall Dasavatharam is a huge dissapppointment. Even the biggest Kamalahasan fans are going to have a hard time defending this disaster.

Challenger School: Myths, Pros and Cons

I was scouting the web for thoughts from other parents about the Challenger school system and I was surprised not to find any posts whatsoever on this topic. Schools are discussed so often in social circles so I was expecting to find at least one parent who would take the time to share their experiences. (Ok, for now, let us blame it on Google’s poor search technology).

I have had the opportunity to get familiar with the Challenger school system for a few years now. So here goes…

First, let me dispel two common myths about Challenger.

Myth #1: Challenger is too academic. The kids have to slog it out starting from pre-school and kindergarten.

This is completely untrue. There is no question that the kids learn a lot. But the slog days are long gone. The kids don’t have to stay up at night learning facts and figures by rote. The academic pressure appears to have eased up dramatically over the years. Kids get a lot more time to pursue extra curricular activities. I had heard the same horror stories before, but they are certainly not reflective of present-day Challenger curriculum.

Myth #2: Admission is next to impossible. You have to queue up overnight to get your child admitted.

Again, completely untrue. There was a time at the height of the dotcom days when this was true. The system has changed. It is now a lottery system. Besides, since the dotcom bust the number of applicants has significantly reduced. It’s a different story that that the school will act like its “full”, would want to conduct tests etc. before they admit your child. But the reality is that admission to Challenger is not as hard as it was a few years back. This does not in anyway imply that they are starved of kids. The general student teacher ratio is about 25 to 1 though it is a lot better in the pre-school and the kindergarten level (more like 1 to15).

Having addressed the two common myths, here are a few pros and cons. First, the pros.

The Teachers: The big question always on parents minds, “How are the teachers?” The reality is that the teachers at Challenger are like those at most other schools (I hear that pay scales are equally poor in both private and public schools) — there are some exceptionally good teachers and some mediocre teachers. Thankfully, the Challenger school curriculum is excellent. So if your child is lucky and lands a good teacher, the combination with the curriculum makes it terrific. On the other hand if the teacher is mediocre, the curriculum is the only saving grace (don’t expect the management to be of any help!). Note that you will also find the occasional teacher (a computer teacher in elementary school, for instance) who chooses to go his/her own way (define their own rules) and surprises parents with their own unpredictable ways.

The Parents and The Kids: This is probably the best part about Challenger. There are plenty of like-minded parents from identical social backgrounds whose kids go to Challenger. They face similar challenges and share the same values, resulting in lasting friendships and camaraderie between families.

Now the cons.

The Administration/Management: This is easily Challenger’s weakest link. The Administration operates a lot like the Bush Administration. In other words, they chose to do as they please. They never bother to look at any issue objectively. When faced with any parent complaints or issues, they simply stone-wall. You can kick and scream all you like, go up the ladder, all the way up to Ms. Barbara B. Baker , but objectivity is a non-existent commodity in the Administrative circles at Challenger. If you ever bring up an issue, it is promptly shot down with generic responses like “Its the teacher’s prerogative”, “It is only because your child is affected”, “hysterical Mom/Dad” etc. One of principals’ favorite responses to any issue (no matter how unrelated) almost always begins with “when my son was in Challenger…” Many parents who have taken their kids out of Challenger have done so because of their frustrations with the Management. (In fact, some good teachers have left the school because of their inability to deal with the management). But the general philosophy of the Management seems to be one of “If you don’t like it, you are welcome to take your child some place else”

Update Nov’ 08: Since posting this article, there have been changes in personnel at the Challenger school that I am familiar with. I must say that my interaction with the new personnel has been far more positive .

Adoption of Technology: Considering that the Challenger schools in the bay area serves kids whose parents largely work in the high tech community, you would expect a greater degree of technological savvy at school. Unfortunately, this is not the case. Email as a means of communication is hardly ever used by the school. The website is just a bunch of static pages. The school as a whole does not seem to have embraced technology. The parents on the other hand leverage technology to remain in contact, socialize, communicate and share ideas about issues their kids face etc.

The Ethnic Mix: The kids in the Challenger schools in the bay area are predominantly of Asian Indian and Chinese descent. This is true of the teachers and also the Administrative staff. Without a doubt, Indians form the majority. The lack of a strong ethnic mix is a definite minus , but its no different than the student mix at UC Berkeley or for that matter at some of the leading high tech firms in the bay area (Cisco, Intel, Google, Yahoo etc.)

The Big Question: Should you send your kids to Challenger?

I hate to sound like a lawyer. But my answer in this case is “It depends”. The thought of developing a checklist followed by an automated “Challenger Readiness Score” did cross my mind. But I’ll stop here and let you make up your own mind based on the above. I welcome comments and thoughts from others, especially other parents.

Dhoni Strengthens Hold Over Team Selection

Dinesh Karthik’s exit from the ODI was on the cards. The big three Rahul Dravid, Ganguly and VVS Laxman are unlikely to play ODI again for India. Sachin is injured and Harbhajan is serving his sentence. The injured Sreesanth has just been replaced by the impressive Goni. With this, India’s team for the Kitply Cup extends Dhoni’s virtually complete control over the team selection. He initiated the changes he desired on the Australian tour and refined it further on this tour. If Dhoni can continue to show results like he has done so far, the transition to a strong established ODI and T20 leadership will soon be complete.

Rahul Dravid once lamented that he did not get the team he wanted. Dhoni has done well to achieve precisely that in a very short time. Hats off to the young man! In a country where there is so much of “push and pull” it is commendable that a small town player who was barely known a few years back, and hardly ever captained a side has had such a meteoric rise not just to prominence but to one of power. What is interesting is that despite his relative lack of experience he can’t seem to do any wrong! His recent T20 leadership in the IPL league was commendable as was his performance Down Under. Without a doubt, Dhoni has led from the front, made bold decisions (like dumping the seniors) and extracted the best from the youngsters.

The only remaining relative old timer is Virender Sehwag and based on the talent available these days (Uthappa, Gambhir, Yusuf, Asnodhkar), he could be the next one to be axed. After the infamous slap-gate its hard to imagine everything being hunky-dory between India’s two hot heads — Bhajji and Sreesanth. In all likelihood, one of them is likely to be phased out and all hands point to Sreesanth given the competition he is faced with and Dhoni’s recent comments on the issue which appear to lean Harbhajan’s way.

While Bangladesh continues to disappoint, India-Pakistan matches should still be of interest. India would do well to rely on form and this means picking Yusuf Pathan, Goni and Suresh Raina in the playing eleven. The team for the match against Pakistan will be as follows (likely):

Yusuf Pathan, Gautam Gambhir, Suresh Raina, Yuvraj Singh, Rohit Sharma, MS Dhoni, Irfan Pathan, Piyush Chawla, Praveen Kumar, Goni, Ishant Sharma.

IPL: The Semi-final Line-up, Top Stars, and the ICL

A new format of the cricket game targeted at the world’s leading cricket market appears to have become a bumper hit for all and sundry. The three hour duration combined with the day-night schedule has managed to attract a new set of cricket audiences among families with small kids in addition to the already cricket crazy Indian public. Based on media reports, the turn out at these matches and the general interest level, it appears that the IPL is a resounding success and as Dravid said “IPL is here to stay“. Besides, the fact that the IPL has become a B-school topic of study is another indication that big bucks are involved. From a business perspective, the organizers seem to have clearly hit the “sweet spot” of commercial cricket. Fast and furious, quick and dirty (from a cricket traditionalists point of view), movie stars and scantily clad cheerleaders, sixes and fours galore, music and food — its all there, the ultimate Americanized package fine-tuned for the fast rising obsessive Indian consumer.

Understandably, cashing in on the wave the organizers have hiked up the ticket prices significantly.

Prices have been hiked from two to 20 times – depending on the stand – for the semi-finals at Wankhede Stadium and the final at the newly-built D.Y. Patil Stadium. A seat in the air conditioned box will cost as much as Rs.25,000 at the Wankhede for the semis, and it will go up to Rs.35,000 for the final at DY Patil Stadium. See full report.

With about 50 games completed and the final four of the IPL decided here are a few observations that come to mind.

Big Bucks and Big Names Don’t Guarantee The Best Performance

Ironically, the most four expensive teams didn’t make it to the final four. Deccan Chargers, a team with the likes of Symonds, Gilchrist, Afridi, and Gibbs, easily some of the biggest hitters in modern day cricket ended up at the bottom of the pile! The Bangalore Royal Challengers clearly suffered from a case of poor team composition. Mumbai had the excuse that it missed Tendulkar in the early part of the IPL and had to subsequently deal with the Harbhajan mess. To be fair Mumbai lost a few close games. As for Kolkata, they were too dependent on the foreign players and they never really recovered after their departure.

Struggling Big Four

There were a lot of questions raised about having the senior players who are pushing 35+ in the T20 teams. At this stage of the tournament these questions remain and the answers don’t appear to favor these big stars. Barring Ganguly who produced one fighting knock none of these big stars really produced any memorable match winning innings while lesser known stars like Shaun Marsh, Yusuf Pathan, Rohit Sharma, Venugopal Rao, Badrinath and Gautam Gambhir impressed throughout the series. Highly rated (and expensive) upcoming stars like Ishant Sharma, Robin Uthappa and Virat Kohli also failed to live up to their promised potential. Ultimately performance matters and there are quite a few players who could probably be phased out in time for the next season (or have their contracts re-negotiated!). The big stars will continue to be around more for their star power than for their cricketing prowess. Interestingly, the teams lead by the next generation of Indian captains Dhoni, Yuvraj and Sehwag qualified for the semi-finals.

Warne Shows His Class, Yet Again

There is no question that Shane Warne is one of the all time greats in cricket. His performance as captain this IPL has been most impressive. Whoever chose Warne to lead the team deserves special kudos and possibly a place on the Indian selection committee! The decision to have Warne lead was a master stroke. He has turned his relatively weak team (on paper) into a formidable force in the IPL. It will be interesting to see how his team performs in the final four.

Top 10 Players: Desi vs. Videshi

Shane Watson, Shaun Marsh, Kumar Sangakkara, Yusuf Pathan, Gautam Gambhir, Rohit Sharma, Glenn McGrath, Sohail Tanvir, Piyush Chawla, JA Morkel.

This would be my top 10 valuable players in the IPL so far. Notice that only four out the 10 are players from India. Besides, there were other foreign players (Hayden, Symonds, Taylor etc.) who might have made the list if they didn’t have to leave the series sooner than they did. In other words, many of the top players in the T20 format are not from India. While the IPL has been a great opportunity to seek out some new young local talent, it did also highlight the fact that despite being the current T20 champions India has less than a handful of players who can claim to be among the top T20 players in the world. Besides, if the level of the game has to be upped a notch, maybe the four foreign player limit in the teams must be relaxed just a bit, to maybe five.

The Final Four

The four teams in the semi-finals are well-matched, though based on recent performance and consistency Rajasthan and Punjab appear to be the two top teams. Given the uncertainties in T20 it is pretty much any teams game. My prediction (I have seldom been correct) is for Punjab-Rajasthan final.

Hopefully, the pitches are tailored to suit the bowlers so there is at least some even contests as opposed to batsmen dominated games.

ICL vs. IPL

The success of the IPL and the relative failure of the ICL is ample proof of the unfair monopoly that the BCCI holds over cricket in India. The BCCI essentially co-opted the ICL idea (crushed the ICL with several roadblocks including access to grounds, banning of players etc.) and used their reach and muscle to achieve a what appears to be mind-boggling success. One can’t help but wonder what the future holds for the ICL.

Scott McClellan: Et tu, Brute?

Ok, here comes yet another book from someone closely involved with the White House. With this book former Bush White House press scretary Scott McClellan joins the ranks of George Tenet, David Kuo, Richard Clarke and others. It is hard to take such folks too seriously because you never know what their real motivations are. At the same time it would be unwise to disregard such books completely. Clearly “mistakes were made” and when they were made Mr. McClellan was a part of it. Trying to come clean now doesn’t absolve him of all the responsibility. He was obviously not just another insider. As the public face of the White House one could argue that he should have been privy to most of the decisions prior to them being made. Waiting for so long to come out with his version can be construed as being somewhat disingenuous. At the same time it can be “positioned” as wanting to make peace with oneself. In any case, it is sad to see seeming loyalists turn against the boss after the fact.

Irrespective of Mr. McClellan’s motivations the Bush White House has yet another media crisis to deal with. Not surprisingly, the White House criticized the book. Dana Perino, White House Press Secretary said, “Scott, we now know, is disgruntled about his experience at the White House,” she said. “For those of us who fully supported him, before, during and after he was press secretary, we are puzzled. It is sad. This is not the Scott we knew.”

Expect Karl Rove and the Fox Network to go after Scott McClellan in a big way over the next several days and weeks while the so-called liberal media goes to town with specific interpretations of various excerpts as the book hits the stands.

The media now has a new story to slice and dice. McClellan will no doubt sell a lot of books and enjoy the limelight. Unfortunately, success of such books is likely to lead to more such books and the same cycle will carry on with the media. It is questionable as to whether these books serve any larger purpose than to keep the cycle of controversy going in Washington and making some public figures richer than they already are. Thankfully, with the elections round the corner and the democratic party nomination mess in the offing, I suspect that this story is unlikely to stay around for long.