Passion of the Mel

post from Eschaton on 24 September 2006 11:52:00 PM. © Eschaton

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Mel Gibson has returned to the spotlight to promote his upcoming movie "Apocalypto," and to criticize the war in Iraq, according to the Hollywood Reporter.

Almost two months after he railed against Jews when he was arrested for driving drunk in Malibu, the actor made a surprise appearance Friday at Fantastic Fest, an event in Austin, Texas, devoted to new science fiction, horror and fantasy films, the trade paper said in its Monday edition.

He presented a work-in-progress screening of his Mayan adventure tale, and then took questions. About one-third of the full house gathered for the film gave him a standing ovation. The film is scheduled for a December 8 release via Disney.

In describing its portrait of a civilization in decline, Gibson said, "The precursors to a civilization that's going under are the same, time and time again," drawing parallels between the Mayan civilization on the brink of collapse and America's present situation. "What's human sacrifice," he asked, "if not sending guys off to Iraq for no reason?"

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Open Thread

post from Crooks and Liars on 24 September 2006 11:42:52 PM. © Crooks and Liars

Attack Poodles

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The Hell With the Law

post from TalkLeft: The Politics of Crime on 24 September 2006 11:26:29 PM. © TalkLeft: The Politics of Crime

by TChris

New York isn't the only jurisdiction to vest significant power in judges who have little acquaintance with the law. The problems exposed by the NY Times' investigation of municipal courts (inaptly named "justice courts") abound in other states. Still, some of the Times' examples of injustice are particularly egregious:

People have been sent to jail without a guilty plea or a trial, or tossed from their homes without a proper proceeding. In violation of the law, defendants have been refused lawyers, or sentenced to weeks in jail because they cannot pay a fine. Frightened women have been denied protection from abuse. ...
A mother of four, she went to court in that North Country village seeking an order of protection against her husband, who the police said had choked her, kicked her in the stomach and threatened to kill her. The justice, Donald R. Roberts, a former state trooper with a high school diploma, not only refused, according to state officials, but later told the court clerk, "Every woman needs a good pounding every now and then."

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American Ideas and Karl Rove

post from Gun Toting Liberal on 24 September 2006 11:22:00 PM. © Gun Toting Liberal

Karl Rove has an Ace up his sleeve and nobody knows what it is yet. He might put out that OBL is dead in October or Democrats are genetically pedophiles. One more attack on the Catholic faith is an easy cheap shot. Religious right would love that. Karl Rove is all [...]

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http://guntotingliberal.com/archives/14

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“He used the N-word on a regular basis back
then.”

post from Think Progress on 24 September 2006 11:06:00 PM. © Think Progress

– Dr. Ken Shelton on his University of Virginia football teamate, Sen. George Allen (R-VA). Two other players corraborated Shelton’s story, according to Salon.

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en/

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Falwell = Chavez

post from Daily Kos on 24 September 2006 11:03:28 PM. © Daily Kos

Seems like everyone is getting into the swing of demonizing. This time, though, it's coming from a "man of the cloth":

The Rev. Jerry Falwell acknowledged on Sunday saying that if Hillary Rodham Clinton were the Democrats' presidential nominee in 2008, it would motivate conservative evangelical Christians to oppose her more than if the devil himself were running.
Falwell said in a telephone interview that his comments to several hundred pastors and religious activists at the "Value Voter Summit" conference were "totally tongue-in-cheek."
"I certainly hope that Hillary is the candidate," Falwell said at a breakfast session Friday in Washington. "I hope she's the candidate, because nothing will energize my (constituency) like Hillary Clinton," he said. "If Lucifer ran, he wouldn't."

So he says Hillary Clinton is worse than Satan, in public, but doesn't really mean it. Right. And the American media goes wild reporting the hate-filled remarks of an extremist religious leader.

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Absurd Claims

post from Eschaton on 24 September 2006 10:41:00 PM. © Eschaton

When George Allen told Mike Stark that he'd never used the word "nigger" the absurdity of the claim was obvious. Of course that word had passed his lips at some point in his life. I imagine there are few Americans who haven't used the word in some fashion at some time. For the record I have. I just typed it a few seconds ago. I'm reasonably sure that I've never used it as a direct racial epithet, though I can't be sure I've never used the word in ways my older more enlightened self wouldn't consider to be inappropriate.

Though his denial was absurd that doesn't mean he'd ever used it in a fashion such that he should be harshly judged now. And, frankly, I'd even forgive "stupid awful shit he did as a college student" if there was reason to believe he'd evolved since then. But, since Mr. Macaca obviously hasn't evolved since then this matters:

Sept. 24, 2006 | WASHINGTON -- George AllenThree former college football teammates of Sen. George Allen say that the Virginia Republican repeatedly used an inflammatory racial epithet and demonstrated racist attitudes toward blacks during the early 1970s.

"Allen said he came to Virginia because he wanted to play football in a place where 'blacks knew their place,'" said Dr. Ken Shelton, a white radiologist in North Carolina who played tight end for the University of Virginia football team when Allen was quarterback. "He used the N-word on a regular basis back then."

A second white teammate, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because he feared retribution from the Allen campaign, separately claimed that Allen used the word "nigger" to describe blacks. "It was so common with George when he was among his white friends. This is the terminology he used," the teammate said.

A third white teammate contacted separately, who also spoke on condition of anonymity out of fear of being attacked by the Virginia senator, said he too remembers Allen using the word "nigger," though he said he could not recall a specific conversation in which Allen used the term. "My impression of him was that he was a racist," the third teammate said.

Shelton also told Salon that the future senator gave him the nickname "Wizard," because he shared a last name with Robert Shelton, who served in the 1960s as the imperial wizard of the United Klans of America, a group affiliated with the Ku Klux Klan. The radiologist said he decided earlier this year that he would go public with his concerns about Allen if a reporter ever called. About four months ago, when he heard that Allen was a possible candidate for president in 2008, Shelton began to write down some of the negative memories of his former teammate. He provided Salon excerpts of those notes last week.

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U.S. intelligence agencies determine Iraq war has
made America less safe

post from media girl (mediagirl.org) - progressive, feminist, empowered on 24 September 2006 10:40:24 PM. © media girl (mediagirl.org) - progressive, feminist, empowered

The report was completed in April and represented a consensus view of the 16 disparate spy services inside government, according to an intelligence official. The official, confirming accounts first published in Sunday's New York Times and Washington Post, spoke on condition of anonymity on Sunday because the report is classified.
"Unfortunately this report is just confirmation that the Bush administration's stay-the-course approach to the Iraq war has not just made the war more difficult and more deadly for our troops, but has also made the war on terror more dangerous for every American," said Rep. Rahm Emanuel, head of the Democratic effort to take control of the House.
"It's time for a new direction in this country," Emanuel, D-Ill., said in the statement.
"Press reports say our nation's intelligence services have confirmed that
President Bush's repeated missteps in Iraq and his stubborn refusal to change course have made America less safe," said Senate Democratic Leader Harry Reid. "No election-year White House PR campaign can hide this truth."

Interesting how the AP report emphasizes that the Democrats are talking about the report, and does not emphasize the report itself.

You'd think that national security would be a bigger story than what Congressional Democrats are saying about that report.

You'd think. But the Beltway press can be a bit myopic on these things. They don't see truth, just politicians.

No wonder we're in Iraq in the first place.

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http://mediagirl.org/node/1364

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ANOTHER LEAKED NATIONAL INTELLIGENCE ESTIMATE
PROVES BUSH HAS BEEN LYING NON-STOP SINCE APRIL

I hope the Democratic leadership will pick up on this, but both The Washington Post and The New York Times have important stories today about how, as John Kerry put it, "The National Intelligence Estimate provides jarring confirmation that the disastrous policy in Iraq is a giant recruiting poster for terrorists."

This week it will sink in that since April Bush has known, has covered up and has lied his ass off about what his own Intelligence services told him: that the occupation of Iraq has increased Islamic radicalism, worsened the terror threat and made Americans far less safe. Completed in April the NIE is titled "Trends in Global Terrorism: Implications for the United States." According to The Post "it describes the situation in Iraq as promoting the spread of radical Islam by providing a focal point, with constant reinforcement of an anti-American message for disaffected Muslims. The Web sites provide a narrative of a war with frequent victories for the insurgents, and describe an occupation that they say regularly targets Islam and its adherents. They also distribute increasingly frequent and sophisticated messages from al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden and his deputy, Ayman al-Zawahiri, urging Muslims wherever they are to take up arms against the 'Crusaders' on behalf of Iraq. Both Bush and bin Laden now consistently describe the Iraq war as the 'central front' of the global war, and both are depending on victory there to set the direction of future struggles far afield."

Rove, freaking out that the revelations will undercut the political arguments for staying the course-- and just when people are starting to think about Midterm elections-- had the White House (which normally never comments on classified intelligence leaks) try to rebut the NIE's potentially devastating impact on whatever is left on Bush's tattered credibility and on GOP policy in Iraq in general. Their efforts paled before the enormity of the revelations and 5 full months of Bush's blatant lies since he was briefed on the findings. which states flatly that the invasion and occupation of Iraq is "central" to the development and growth of the insurgency-- a not unnatural response-- and that it was the leading inspiration for an explosion of Islamic networks united by one factor: an anti-Bush agenda. Bush ignored his own NIE because it concludes, according to The Post "that rather than contributing to eventual victory in the global counterterrorism struggle, the situation in Iraq has worsened the U.S. position... 'It's a very candid assessment,' one intelligence official said yesterday of the estimate, the first formal examination of global terrorist trends written by the National Intelligence Council since the March 2003 invasion. 'It's stating the obvious.'"

Meanwhile, when Wolf Blitzer questioned Bush about Iraq on CNN today-- one would wish the House or Senate would do something like that, although it will take Democratic victories in November for Congress to turn from a rubber stamp outfit to a viable representative of the people's interests and concerns-- Bush stumbled badly. Apparently the pathetic imbecile had the colossal gall to say aloud what everyone knows his Regime believes anyway-- that to him, all the deaths and mayhem in Iraq, both American and Iraqi, will just be "a comma" in the history books. One can only pray to God that this whole episode will be a paragraph in the history books about the first American president to be tried, found guilty and imprisoned. Although Bush is currently seeking immunity for himself and his bandit regime from the War Crimes of which they are so clearly guilty.

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http://downwithtyranny.blogspot.com/2006/09/another-leaked-national-intelligence.
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Surely You Kid

Michael Scherer reports: Three former college football teammates of Sen. George Allen say that the Virginia Republican repeatedly used an inflammatory racial epithet and demonstrated racist attitudes toward blacks during the early 1970s. "Allen said he[...]

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http://ezraklein.typepad.com/blog/2006/09/surely_you_kid.html

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