NYC Letter: America's Ruling Class -- Michael Bloomberg

Day 1,464 of CHOPE
D-minus 1,455 Days

A little peek at the ruling class.

This one tucked away in a lengthy New York Magazine valentine on Christine Quinn, anointed successor to Mayor Mike.

“Look at the ass on her"; or how a 9k-word Christine Quinn profile becomes a story about Mike Bloomberg. nym.ag/XL3wKi

— katie benner (@ktbenner) January 28, 2013

Jonathan Van Meter writes:

As it happens, I was at a Christmas party for the rich just a few weeks ago. ... Later in the evening, the host interrupted me to point out that the mayor himself had just arrived. Did I want to meet him? Sure. My friend and I followed the host over, shook Bloomberg’s hand, and my friend thanked him for his position on gun control. Without even acknowledging the comment, Bloomberg gestured toward a woman in a very tight floor-length gown standing nearby and said, "Look at the ass on her."

This is not some paparazzo's lucky snap of a politico's unguarded appreciation of callipygia. This is the king pronouncing without fear of censure. And pronouncing to no one in particular, as the brush-off of Mr. van Meter & co. makes apparent. This is the king exercising his prerogative to pronounce for the pleasure of pronouncing, the pleasure of hearing his own voice decreeing the woman with the nice bottom to indeed have a nice bottom. So says the king.

Of course, when you look upon the woman with the nice bottom, you may not comment on the nice bottom of the woman with the nice bottom. That would be objectifying both the nice bottom and the woman attached thereto. And that would be sexist. And sexist is flat-out wrong.

No. [Pause to condescend.] Pronouncements on nice bottoms may be made only by those perched above the politesse that hobbles the lesser classes. The little people. You.

Look at that ass. RT @irishspy BREAKING: NY Mayor Mike Bloomberg Uses Bodyguards to Bully Journalist in Washington is.gd/F0NfiX

— Jon Gabriel (@ExJon) January 28, 2013

CHOPE.

Mayor Mike. Assman. Ass.

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NYC Letter: Today's Big Stupid -- Début! Touré

Day 1,463 of CHOPE
D-minus 1,456 Days

MSNBC continues to be a rich field to mine the Big Stupid.

MSNBC HOST:
'I THANK GOD AND COUNTRY…
ABORTION WAS THERE TO SAVE ME'

January 25, 2013 (Blaze) - During MSNBC's "The Cycle" on Friday, co-host Toure celebrated the 40th anniversary of the landmark Roe v. Wade decision to legalize abortion by telling the story of when he and an old girlfriend decided to have an abortion 15 years ago.

... He said he was extremely thankful abortion was an option because wasn't ready to be a dad and going through with the pregnancy would have just made "a mess of three lives" because she "wasn’t the one".

"I thank God and country that when I fell into a bad situation, abortion was there to save me and keep me on a path toward building a strong family I have now. And I pray that safety net stays in place," Toure said.

Being able to choose to have an abortion makes for a "stronger America", he concluded.

Touré (born Touré Neblett) is another overdue debutante to the Big Stupid. Here he thinks abortion is an indispensible safety net.

He wants you to know because of abortion things worked out for him. Although his girlfriend "wasn’t the one" he found her "the one" enough to have unprotected sex with her. Building on that irresponsibility, Touré recognized he wasn't ready to be a dad. That is most probably true, but not being ready did not disoblige him from being responsible. It is Touré's self-serving opinion that "going through with the pregnancy would have just made 'a mess of three lives'". The only certain "messed up life" was his baby's, who was denied life, which is "messed up" in extremis.

This is not so much hypocrisy as it is selfishness.

What is interesting here is liberals like Touré argue that abortion is not the taking of human life. If they were to concede that a human life indeed is taken, then premeditated abortion for personal convenience -- with no threat to the life of the mother -- becomes murder. Yet, here is Touré arguing his abortion affected three lives.

This is hypocrisy.

Abortion saved Touré from a bad situation and he's thankful to both God and country. There is nothing to thank God for, so that just leaves Roe v. Wade.

Happy birthday to Roe v. Wade—what's left of it: bit.ly/U0NCO8

— Mother Jones (@MotherJones) January 22, 2013

The same people who condemned Bristol Palin as trailer trash for keeping her baby are celebrating the anniversary of Roe v. Wade. Ghouls.

— Jim Treacher (@jtLOL) January 26, 2013

CHOPE.

Convenient arguments for convenient abortions.

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NYC Letter: The Horror, The Horror -- Al Roker

Once upon a time the television broadcast day began with the farm report and ended with the national anthem. All-night viewers were entertained by the Indian head test pattern and its sine wave tone. Few markets were served by more than three network affiliate channels. News was dribbled in 15 minute local and half hour network broadcasts.

Gone. Gone are the days.

Today markets are served by hundreds of channels. Few if any stations sign off. Television is an endless broadcast. News broadcasts stretch across the "news morning" into the "news afternoon" into the night-long "news evening".

Where early television had a dearth of programming, today's television has a dearth of celebrities, personalities on which to peg its programming. Anyone and everyone can be recruited to the cause for a series or a 15-minute interview.

Pinched networks repurpose television functionaries as celebrities in their own right. Television becomes meta-television. People who work in front of a television camera are eventually interviewed for collateral programming. [Pause.] Interviewed about what? [Reiterative pause.] Since his day job has little general interest, the interviewee entertains us with the intimate minutiae of his life.

AL ROKER WENT COMMANDO
AFTER WHITE HOUSE, UM, ACCIDENT

January 8, 2013 (LAT) - Al Roker went sans underpants in George W. Bush's White House — but it wasn't because he was feeling sexy on the job. Rather, the "Today" show weatherman had accidentally pooped his pants on his way in.

He'd included the anecdote in his new book, "Never Goin' Back," released a week ago, and discussed it in an interview with Nancy Snyderman on Sunday's "Dateline." By Tuesday, however, after the tale of his tail took on a life of its own, he found himself on "Today" discussing it again.

... "When you have a bypass and your bowel's been reconstructed, you think you're pretty safe," Roker told Snyderman. "And I probably went off and ate something I wasn't supposed to. And as I'm walking to the press room, well, I gotta pass a little gas here. I'm walking by myself. Who's gonna know? Only a little something extra came out."

"You pooped in your pants," said Snyderman.

"I pooped my pants," said Roker. "Not horribly, but enough that I knew."

And now we know. And there's more that we didn't really want to know.

Later in the "Dateline" interview, Roker's wife shared that she's more sexually attracted to him since he lost more than 100 pounds, but emphasized that he's "always been good" in bed.

Thanks, Mrs. R.

AL ROKER 'AMAZED' THAT
'POOPED MY PANTS'
COMMENT WENT VIRAL
January 9, 2013 (FNC)

Mr. Roker could have made his point about the consequences of gastric bypass surgery without the anecdote. Whatever Mrs. R's point, she could have spared us altogether.

With this post we become, certainly, part of the problem. Our complaint sows the very thing of which we complain (amongst you, our delicate minuscule readership). Like Mr. Roker, we could have made our point without Mr. Roker's retelling. However, having done so, it is unlikely you will forget the point.

PLEASE, MORE OF THIS. PLEASE.
Bring Back Less
[Picture source: Wikimedia Commons]

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NYC Letter: Today's Big Stupid -- Cindy Sheenan

Day 1,127 of CHOPE

The year is young and yet we may already have the Big Stupid Of The Year.

CINDY SHEEHAN TELLS OCCUPY ROSE BOWL:
'I HAVEN'T PAID MY TAXES'
IN NEARLY EIGHT YEARS
January 2, 2012 (Breitbart.tv)

Because the self-righteous float above the law, and the law obliges. Except for tax law, which makes all render unto Caesar.

FEDS SUE ANTI-WAR ACTIVIST
CINDY SHEEHAN OVER BACK TAXES

SACRAMENTO February 22, 2012 (WTSP/KXTV) - The federal government has filed a lawsuit to force anti-war activist Cindy Sheehan to provide her financial records to the Internal Revenue Service.

An IRS revenue officer said Sheehan refused to answer any questions about her finances after receiving a summons at her Vacaville home.

... [IRS revenue officer Jose Arteaga] said Sheehan first met with him on Nov. 22 and sought an extension to Jan. 17. It was during the January meeting that she refused to answer any questions or produce the requested documents.

Sheehan said she's always been up front with the IRS and has no intention of paying her taxes. She says the government has already taken enough from her.

"If they (federal government), can give me my son back, I'll pay my taxes, but that's not going to happen," Sheehan said.

Ms. Sheenan, as you may recall if you keep tabs on the fringe of the fringe of the hem of the left, is a mother who lost her son, U.S. Army Specialist Casey Sheehan, in Iraq and went on to exploit his death for the brief fame of the summer slow news cycle and in turn be exploited by the left for political theater. It was a great relationship, till Ms. Sheenan went off-script.

Ms. Sheehan apparently thinks blanket immunity comes with self-righteousness. So confident in her celebrity bravado, she announces to the world she flouts her tax obligations. [Strained pause.] Because she thinks she is all that.

Flare to Cindy, the IRS will have its reckoning.

CHOPE.

Beyond stupid. Beyond big stupid.

NYC Letter: Joe On The Job XIX -- The Jolly Rajah

Day 1,100 of CHOPE

Joe Biden has been loosed among us.

BIDEN EMPLOYS INDIAN ACCENT
DURING N.H. SPEECH
ROCHESTER, New Hampshire January 26, 2012 (TWS)

The video at the headline link shows that Mr. Biden didn't get far before he caught himself, just enough to offend the offendable. We do not think this particular incident very damning. Unless you happen to be running for the second highest office in the land tethered to a struggling presidency. In which case cracking wise on the hustings is plain dumb.

However this does present an opportunity to bring up an earlier dopier Biden incident:

This is not the first time Biden has made bizarre and inappropriate comments about Indians. In 2006, Biden came under fire for making this remark about Indian-Americans in Delaware:

I've had a great relationship. In Delaware, the largest growth in population is Indian-Americans moving from India. You cannot go to a 7-Eleven or a Dunkin' Donuts unless you have a slight Indian accent. I'm not joking.

We don't know what this means. Indians emigrate from India, open businesses in Delaware, then demand the native clientele speak with an Indo-Anglo lilt? What advantage in customer service attends perfecting "a slight Indian accent"? In our experience Indo-American merchants are highly assimilated. It has never been our experience that they expect -- would much less appreciate -- customers mimicking their accents.

Mr. Biden is clearly not a PC guy. But. He is a Democrat and among Democrats the pieties are expected to be observed, even by high ranking do-nothings.

CHOPE.

No offense, Kumar. He's not a Republican.

NYC Letter: Joe On The Job XVIII -- Vanity Fail

Day 1,098 of CHOPE

Joe Biden is 69 years old. Yet his forehead is as taut as J Lo's bikini bottom.

OVER-BOTOXED
The Jocelyn Wildenstein Of CHOPE
[Picture source: Saul Loeb-Pool/Getty Images]

Mr. Biden has denied in the past using botox to smooth out his forehead. [Plastic surgeons roll their eyes.]

Botox is a local subcutaneous application of the botulinum toxin, a lethal* neurotoxin produced during sporulation by the Clostridium botulinum bacterium. It gives Mr. Biden's forehead the unnatural appearance and immobility of a porcelain doorknob. Botox also impairs the natural elevation of his eyebrows, as seen in the above photo where the expressive lower face lifts and piles into the impassable superciliary dam.

There is also professional agreement he has had blepharoplasty, resulting in his mask-like cut-out eyelids.

Mr. Biden thinks all this and hair plugs preserve his good looks. [Pause.] Think again. Mr. Biden's looks are as phony as his politics. And just as creepy.

CHOPE.

Phony face.

------------------------------------
* Five hundred grams is enough to kill half the entire human population.

NYC Letter: Department Of Giant Cojones IX -- Jeeeeemy!

Day 852 of CHOPE

Superior Presidential Cojones Edition

Dug up by Hot Air. Eight months old. We missed it. You won't want to.

Q: The last photo of you with your-- fellow former presidents, you were well off to the side on the right. And I thought to myself, well, there's-- there's a possible metaphor. What is it-- about you, you think, the way you've-- decided to conduct your life and post-presidency? Do you feel listened to? Do you feel-- that you receive your due? Or do you feel, in fact, apart from the crowd?

No. I-- I feel that my role as a former president is probably superior to that of other presidents. Primarily because of the activism and the-- and the injection of working at the Carter Center and in international affairs, and to some degree, domestic affairs, on energy conservation, on-- on environment, and things of that kind. We're right in the midst of the-- of the constant daily debate.

And-- and-- and the Carter Center has decided, under my leadership, to fill the vacuums in the world. When-- when the United States won't deal with troubled areas, we go there and we meet their leaders who can bring an end to a conflict, or an end to human rights abuse, and so forth. So I-- I feel that have an advantage over many other former presidents in being involved in daily affairs that have shaped the policies of our nation and the world.

Jimmy Carter,
the superior former president,
shin-kicking Nobel laureate,
NoKo enabler, Hamas shill, closet Tory,
bizarre and tireless critic of the United States,
graceless ankle-biter, and all-around political whore
INTERVIEW
September 20, 2010 (NBC News)

That sounds rather, um, superior coming from the likes of Jeeeeemy. [Pause.] Why yes it is. Mr. Carter issued a written walk-back after his comments aired:

What I meant was, for 27 years the Carter Center has provided me with superior opportunities to do good.

Said. Meant. Close enough. Say anything as long as you can endlessly fob off a slightly less risible answer as what you meant.

What is behind Mr. Carter's endless aggrandizing stunts? [We peek behind the velour curtain.] Mr. Carter suffers from a secret insight into the lousy president he was and is making a noisy second career out of self-denial. We are continually embarrassed for him, which -- no surprise to the attentive skimmer -- annoys us, which adds but another mite to Mr. Carter's vast store of post-presidential attentions. That annoys us as well, which, if Mr. Carter had the slightest inkling of our existence, would no doubt please him.

¡Ésos son algunos cojones grandes, señor Jeeeeemy!

CHOPE.

The worst president. The superior ex-president.

NYC Letter: Prescript For Thee, Not Me

UPDATE 06.02.09: WH press secretary Robert Gibbs takes the tough question, doesn't answer it.

Q: Robert, are you going to tell us how much the President and the First Lady's date night cost on Saturday night, and if not, why not?

Well, Jonathan, I think [A low noise. Distracted.] it's a...it's, itza, I thought it was the air conditioner, now it's the helicopter. Um, you know, I, I, I think spokespeople have spoken to this over the weekend, ah, the President, ah, ah, would had-had-he or could he, ah, based on the Secret Service, he would have taken the shuttle [No doubt!]. Ah, but, ah-um, I would say that the costs are proportionate with, ah, travel for Presidents. And I would encourage you to, ah, look up previous coverage on, ah, travel costs, ah, because they're analogous.

Q: But is there any President or a President and First Lady who have taken an out-of-town date night like this, not connected to an official or even a political -- previous event?

Ah, you-you've got probably more researchers than I do.

The WH transcript is considerably tidier. Why couldn't Mr. Gibbs simply say the costs are not officially known, that they will or won't be calculated, though, calculated or not, are certainly significant, and that Mr. Obama is out of touch.

------------------------------------------------------------------------

Day 132 of CHOPE

First this.

OBAMA CALLS FOR SACRIFICE
AS ECONOMIC TEAM ROLLED OUT

CHICAGO November 25, 2008 (AFP) - President-elect Barack Obama was set Tuesday to promote swift action to revive the US economy, and appeal for sacrifice from voters and politicians alike, in his second press conference in as many days.

Well, I mean, we're out of money now.

Mr. Obama,
spender-in-chief, giving America's account balance
as he prepares to squeeze taxpayers
for $1.5 trillion
to nationalize health care
INTERVIEW May 23, 2009 (C-Span)

So. On your own dime, to make ends meet, its fish sticks, PBRs, and re-watching your collection of pre-viewed movies from Odd Lots. Also on your dime, the Obamas fly to NYC for dinner and a show.

OBAMA KEEPS HIS BIG APPLE PLEDGE
Wows First Lady With Dinner & B'way Show

WASHINGTON/NEW YORK CITY May 31, 2009 (NYP) - "I am taking my wife to New York City because I promised her during the campaign that I would take her to a Broadway show after it was all finished," the president said yesterday after touching down at JFK for an intimate night on the town.

Well. At least he's kept one campaign promise. (Oh, and this and this. And a roundup.)

What exactly was the cost to taxpayers? [We lean forward in our seats.]

WHITE HOUSE DECLINES TO SAY
WHAT NY TRIP COST
June 1, 2009 (KCS/AP)

Low-ender.

PRICEY PRESIDENTIAL DATE NIGHT

June 1, 2009 (ExtraTV) - The Obamas' theatre tickets, three planes, two helicopters and a police escort for their NYC date night cost a reported $73,000 -- and the GOP is pouncing on their pricey night of theatre in the Big Apple.

High-ender.

MICHELLE OBAMA'S $1M DATE IN NEW YORK

June 1, 2009 (Mirror) - Three jets of security staff accompanied the Obamas all the way from Washington to dinner in Manhattan before the play Joe Turner's Come And Gone - about poor black workers 100 years ago. The night is believed to have cost $1,000,000 but recession-hit New Yorkers did not seem to mind, clapping the couple through the streets all the way to their seats.

GET A CLUE, BLOOMY! MAYOR TOUTS
OBAMAS' 'AFFORDABLE' NIGHT ON BROADWAY

NEW YORK CITY June 1, 2009 (Daily News) - Mayor Mike Bloomberg, Monday at City Hall commenting on the Obamas' Saturday junket:

I can't think of anything that is better as an advertisement for our tourism industry, for Broadway, for our restaurants, for saying that this is a safe city and an affordable city. The President doesn't get paid that much. He's on a budget, too.

Mr. Obama's expenses are covered in the national budget. [Pause.] Where date-night extravagances are an insignificance.

Some Republican critics have called the Obamas' trip an extravagant waste, given security and other expenses, but Bloomberg called that "so off-base, I wouldn't even mention it, even take it seriously." Mr. Bloomberg:

It does cost us a little extra in security but given the advertising value of having the President and the First Lady come here is worth many times over that. It's a very good deal for us.

It's only money (and this). After all, Mr. Obama won. It's his money to do with as he pleases.

CHOPE.

Keep up the sacrifices. Or suffer quietly. Either or, preferrably both.

Michael Moore: where he belongs

Thanks to RV for sending this picture, taken in the restrooms of an Irish pub, in the capital of Zeropa, Brussels.

You can use your fingers too, if you want, Sheryl

Is there some kind of competition over there in their fantasy world?

Emphasis mine.

Do you know how much paper you use when going to the bathroom? Whatever you think it is, rock star Sheryl Crow says it's too much and announced that a ban should be put into place to limit the amount of toilet paper allowed for each bathroom visit.

After touring the US in a biodiesel-powered bus to raise awareness on climate change, Sheryl Crow made comments on her web site, suggesting that Americans limit the amount of toilet paper they use to help save the environment.

(...)

One of those ideas will likely not go over very well as Sheryl Crow has targeted the private bathroom moments of everyone in the country. Crow writes, "Although my ideas are in the earliest stages of development, they are, in my mind, worth investigating. I propose a limitation be put on how many squares of toilet paper can be used in any one sitting." . . . . In addition to the toilet paper issue, Crow also mentions on her web site that she believes paper napkins "represent the height of wastefulness" and has designed a clothing line with "dining sleeves." The idea is that the sleeve can be detached after the person has used it to wipe their mouth and then replace it with a clean sleeve.

Is the truth too hot to handle?

Everyone has probably seen The Great Global Warming Swindle by now, but in case you haven't, check it out.

After seeing images of Al Gore receiving an Oscar for his "documentary", I was wondering who he was reminding me since he had gained a **little** weight.

I know.

It was the villain in Michael Jackson's Ghosts. Oh well, maybe it can be explained rationally.

All together now: Heal the world...

NYC Letter: Well, Excommunicate Her

Does blasphemy still exist?

We mean to say among Christians, not these good folk, for whom blasphemy is not so much a theological construct as it is a recreational state of pique.

The Catholic Church is upset with pop "artist" Madonna for blaspheming. Yet she hesitates to pronounce Mrs. Ritchie anathema.

VATICAN FURY AT 'BLASPHEMOUS' MADONNA

ROME August 4, 2006 (Telegraph) - The so-called Queen of Pop brings her show to Rome on Sunday, and Roman Catholic leaders are furious at part of her performance in which she wears a crown of thorns and is apparently crucified.

Cardinal Ersilio Tonino, speaking with the Pope's approval, said: "This is a blasphemous challenge to the faith and a profanation of the Cross. She should be excommunicated. To crucify herself … in the city of popes and martyrs is an act of open hostility. It is nothing short of a scandal and an attempt to generate publicity."

Excommunication is only a serious interdict for those who desire communion within the Church.* It does not appear on your scholatistic transcripts or your arrest record. You do not have to admit to it on an employment form. And it does not seriously encumber your run for President of the United States. Then again, it might.

Blasphemy is defined by the Church as "any word of malediction, reproach, or contumely pronounced against God" (De Relig., tract. iii, lib. I, cap. iv, n. 1). This makes Maddona something of a mother lode of blasphemy. It is no secret Madonna has an animus against the Church. Her main complaint, the Church teaches the sanctity of sex whereas the Material Girl is all about the unfettered fun of sex.

Much of her career has been founded on a rebellion against the Roman Catholic Church. As a result, Madonna has often offended many Catholics, including the head of the Catholic Church himself. In 1990, when Madonna toured Italy with the Blond Ambition Tour concert tour, the Pope encouraged citizens not to attend the concert, and as a result, Madonna was forced to cancel two shows due to poor ticket sales. The Pope accused Madonna of blasphemy against the Catholic Church (a crime in Italy), and attempted to have Madonna banned from stepping foot on Italian soil. In response, in a 1990 press conference in Italy, Madonna declared, "I am Italian American and proud of it." In an interview with Rolling Stone magazine, Madonna said that the Pope's reaction hurt, "because I'm Italian, you know", but in another Rolling Stone interview the same year stated that she had ceased to practice Catholicism because the Church "completely frowns on sex... except for procreation".

So why not excommunicate her? Well, as it turns out excommunication is both a formal procedure (scil., ferendæ sententiæ) and an automatic spiritual interdict (scil., latæ, eo ipso). So technically, as a purely spiritual and private matter, Madonna is by her blasphemies themselves automatically out of communion with the Church.

We imagine the curia reasons that the Church would be savaged in the press for pronouncing a public interdict against a celebrity, and that such publicity would only redound to Madonna's further success. But it is a little unseemly for the Mystical Body to regulate its spiritual life with an eye to the press.

If the curia is going to threaten Madonna with excommunication in the headlines, it should follow through -- and absent Mrs. Ritchie's spiritual rehabilitation -- excommunicate her. It's not as if the ACLU will hound the Church about this till the eschaton.

As befits a pop "artist", Mrs. Ritchie, currently a Kabbalist,* maintains a shallow causerie with the Almighty.

Meanwhile, in an interview with the Italian edition of Vanity Fair, Madonna said a bad riding accident last year had brought her closer to God. "It made me look at life in a new way … I promised God: 'I am never going to complain, moan or grumble or be ungrateful again'."

Something to look forward to.

* Mrs. Ritchie apparently beat their eminences to the punch and announced in 1991 she had ceased being a practicing or observant Catholic, essentially excommunicating herself.

When it was okay to sing "I love America" in France

Regularly, French TV channels broadcast a nostalgic night when we have to hear over and over again the same old songs from the 60's, 70's or 80's. Not that it is not nice to hear some old, good songs again, but the exercise is quite artificial.

Anyway, recently I came across such an old song, that was a hit at the time. Such a song would be unthinkable in today's France though. The opposite is what we actually hear everyday on the radio stations.

The song title is: I Love America. The singer's name: Patrick Juvet. The song was realeased in 1978 (when yours truly was a very little girl) and was #1 in 15 countries including the United States.

At the bottom of this post is the video of the song (remember it was released in 1978 ;), that is available here. The lyrics can be found here.

The desperate state of today's opinion of America in France almost makes the song incongruous to hear.

At the top of the sidebar, on the right, you will find a gif of the "I Love America" animation of Juvet's video (Thanks a hundred times to Hervé for the idea and for making the gif), a gif that should be here to stay.

For in case some here would not have realized yet: I love America, too.

"Stupid Girl" writes a letter to President Bush

This is too funny. Although I haven't succeeded in finding the lyrics, I do believe I can guess what the song is about.

"When I started, I had not a thought in my head," Pink said.

How come?

"I was reading The New York Times every day. . .

Ahhhhh.....

. . .and I was really depressed. 'I suck, no one likes me, I have nothing to say.' Forty-five songs later, they make me stop writing songs."

Typical NYT's reader?

The '60s touch is also felt on Pink's most political song yet, "Dear Mr. President," an open letter to George W. Bush. "I hope the president is proud of the fact that we live in a country where we can do things like that, where we can have dissent, talk, communicate and share our opinions," she said.

He surely is. Certainly more than all the singers of the world combined. Well, it's still nice to know you do realize you have this free-dom that the Iraqis now have, too, to a certain degree.

"I also think it's pretty narcissistic to think that one of my songs will be heard by the president of the United States," she laughed, "but hey, that would be really cool."

And that's GWB's first mission for the New Year. Before the War on Terror. Before anything else. Listen to Pink's song and make it "cool" for her.

Pink describes the album as having a "spectrum of light and color." In other words, it's not as dark as it sounds. Yes, there are songs that are angry ("Dear Mr. President"), but she hopes it promotes change.

Heal the world - Make it a better place...

Yes, there are songs that are "morbid and miserable," but there are also songs that are "very happy."

And "morbid and miserable" would make it for a personal album. Thank you very much.

"That's how I live my life. I'm a walking conflict," she laughed. "I guess I turned 25 and sort of woke up. Before, I think, I thought I knew everything and now I realize I have so much left to learn. I just love being here. I love pushing buttons. I love the process of growing up. When you're a teenager, there are moments that you want to die. But you get past that, and then every moment is like, 'I want to live! I have so much to do! I'm not dead! I'm here.' "

Well, grow up then.

Galloping stupidity emergency

Barbra Streisand. Who else?

NYC Letter: GWB & Bono

We are not fans of celebrities dighted out in designer punk who appoint themselves to put the world to rights. But even we gave Bono a full read here:

Q: You went from friend of Bill Clinton to flashing a peace sign in a photo op with George W Bush.

A: I was in a photo with President Bush because he’d put $10 billion over three years on the table in a breakthrough increase in foreign assistance called the Millennium Challenge. I had just got back from accompanying the president as he announced this at the Inter-American Development Bank.

Q: So you liked this man?

A: Yes. As a man, I believed him when he said he was moved to also do something about the Aids pandemic. I believed him. Listen, I couldn’t come from a more different place, politically, socially, geographically. I had to make a leap of faith to sit there. He didn’t have to have me there at all. But you don’t have to be harmonious on everything — just one thing — to get along with someone.

Q: What was your gut feeling the first time you came face to face with President Bush?

A: He was very funny and quick. Just quick-witted. With him, I got pretty quickly to the point, and the point was an unarguable one — that 6,500 people dying every day of a preventable and treatable disease [Aids] would not be acceptable anywhere else in the world other than Africa, and that before God and history this was a kind of racism that was unacceptable.

And he agreed: "Yeah, it’s unacceptable." He said: "In fact, it’s a kind of genocide."

He really helped us in using that word. He knew it was hyperbole, but it was effective. We get on very well. I couldn’t come from a more different place. We disagree on so many things. But he was moved by my account of what was happening in Africa. He was engaged.

Q: But you must have disagreed with him at some point.

A: He banged the table at me once, when I was ranting at him about the ARVs [Aids drugs] not getting out quick enough. I’m Irish. When we get excited we don’t pause for breath, no full stops or commas. He banged the table to ask me to let him reply. He smilingly reminded me he was the president. It was a heated debate. I was very impressed that he could get so passionate. And, let’s face it, tolerating an Irish rock star is not a necessity of his office.

There's more. The JPII tale is quite funny, if true. And funny if not true.

[Hat tip: Judith Weiss]

Dominique de Villepin: Poet, Pop Star and Politician if need be

Sometimes, as Chirac once explained, it is better to remain silent. Prepare your Boules Quiès.

A CD with now-notorious Villepin's UN speech is about to be released:

France's former foreign minister Dominique de Villepin has welcomed the release of a mini-CD which sets to pop music his February 2003 speech before the United Nations in which he pleaded for a peaceful resolution to the crisis over Iraq.

In "A better world," musician Arnaud Fleurent-Didier arranges a synthesised accompaniment to Villepin's words beginning: "In this temple of the United Nations we are the guardians of an ideal, we are the guardians of a conscience."

"This original and personal project expresses the feeling that France cannot remain silent in certain circumstances if it is to remain true to itself and the universal principles which it has always defended," Villepin - now interior minister - told the magazine Technikart.

Now, that would explain why Villepin got a big head (What?!! It's not new?!?) and started talking about himself in the third person:

Reading Le Monde visibly ruined part of his weekend. In any case, on the phone, Dominique de Villepin was furious: "I am not the kind of man to let the prime minister talk to me like that, and should he do it, I am the kind of man to leave the government immediately!" As a sign of his exasperation maybe, he talks about himself in the third person: "Villepin's head tops others' and it bothers! But Villepin says what he thinks . . ."

Geez, Dom, don't you ever let him talk to you like that! You're absolutely right to be angry! Indeed, I do believe you should resign immediately.

You can always start a career in the music business.

UPDATE: You can listen to a sample of "Un Monde Meilleur" here.
And buy it for... 4 euros!!

For A Better World.

Kerry still an as*hole

"Where are George Bush's still? Where are his military records?" Kerry demanded.

The failed presidential candidate continued to maintain that all his records had been released, telling the Globe, "Let me make this clear: My full military record has been made public."

PLEASE, someone, anyone who has contact with this guy, tell him that he lost and that he can now go into hiding with his afro-american wife. PLEASE.

Spare us.

Rather still delusional

And apparently he uses 'we' to speak of himself.

'Civil rights,' said Rather. 'Vietnam. Watergate. These were the stories we told. We're now being blamed for them.'

Clueless

The radical movieman said he "prayed nightly" that Bush's "many scandals" would catch up to him and end his second term prematurely.

Asked if he would donate to the anti-war movement his income from "Fahrenheit 911," which reportedly topped $150 million at the box office, Moore pleaded poverty.

"I haven't seen a dime from this movie!" he told Channel Four.

Oh, my my

Wow. This news has really got me excited. I mean, like, really really really excited.

I just have to share. I'm sure you'll all be really really excited, too. Really. Really.

Ex-Beatle Ringo Starr will become the focus of a new animated superhero show being developed by comic book legend and Spider-Man co-creator Stan Lee.

The as-yet-untitled show will feature an animated alter ego voiced by Starr that is described as an "evil-battling, Earth-saving – though reluctant – superhero with a great sense of rhythm."

Gotcha.

;)

Puppet wisdom

I've noticed that people think there's this really fearful culture in America, and it's just not true," he said.

"That's the greatest part about America, you can say whatever you want about whoever you want.

"People will put you in your place - it doesn't mean you can say whatever you want about whoever you want and there will be no consequences.

"That's not what free speech means. It means that you can say whatever you want, and people respect that right to do that."

Hey, this guy may be onto something, eh?

This is the smallest violin in the da*n universe, Oli

Oli wants his mommy's 'homeland'... Boo, hoo, hoo...sniffle, sniffle.

''...The right thing is for me to stay out of America for a while. I'm planning to spend a lot more time in France."

Sandra's not stingy

Actress Sandra Bullock has given one million dollars to the American Red Cross to boost its...relief campaign, the organisation said.

UPDATE: See who's giving here. Amazing.

UPDATE bis: See who's NOT. Disgusting.

Egalité, you say?

French, Chirakian style.

Johnny Hallyday, the 61- year-old rocker, and his wife Laeticia, 29, adopted a Vietnamese baby girl in record time after a state visit to Hanoi in October by President Jacques Chirac.

Bernadette, Chirac’s wife, presented to the Vietnamese minister of justice a list of dozens of French families who were hoping to adopt. She was quoted as asking the minister: “Do you know our friends Johnny and Laeticia Hallyday?” Hallyday, who has raised money for charities championed by Bernadette Chirac, is a national icon in France, even if the rest of the world is largely ignorant of his talent.

The Vietnamese minister blinked. “He sings,” she explained, adding that the Hallydays had tried in vain for a baby and wanted to adopt a girl.

A few weeks later their wish was granted. The Hallydays have since been photographed in magazines with Jade, their new daughter. They denied that they had been treated differently from anybody else.

That is not how Phung Cuong Tin saw it. He runs a Paris-based charity that arranges adoptions. “It is a huge scandal,” he said, adding that the average wait for a Vietnamese child was three years.

“When there are thousands of families queueing to adopt a child in Vietnam, why should these people (the Hallydays) be given priority? This is a clear case of favouritism” . . .

The singer, who likes to leap on stage in tight leather trousers and a cloud of artificial fog, has always seemed happy to satisfy curiosity about a dalliance with drugs, a suicide attempt in 1966 and a colourful love life that has included five marriages — two of them to the same woman — and numerous affairs.

Last week he acknowledged that the couple had been helped by Bernadette Chirac: “If her action allowed us, perhaps, to go a bit quicker, a lot of anonymous families also benefited from her stepping on the accelerator.”

The 'C' word

WaPo decided that it no longer wants to publish The Great Rall and he says...

"I don't think censorship is ever the answer.''

So, Rall is purposefully offensive and then when WaPo's readers say they are offended and the newspaper drops Rall because they don't want to offend their readers (who pay good money for the paper) that means Rall is being censored for being offensive?

Someone throw a really heavy dictionary at the guy. Could only do him good.

If I had a hammer

...I'd smash a couple of my CDs... Read this and you may want to do the same. That is, if you haven't already.

On a personal level, how many musicians and movie actors become activists and political partisans to justify and find relevance in their stardom, wealth and lives?

After the boredom of playing the same old song for the thousandth time to cheering 14-year-olds, these performers must feel a new self-importance and excitement at the possibility of personally persuading the key voters who depose one president and elect another – and at having President Kerry know this.

Fine, find relevance, go ahead. Give away your money to charity. Give away your royalties to good causes. Endow your hometown schools with a music fund with your moniker all over it. Run for office, if anyone will have you. Write, perform and record protest songs that will be remembered 40 years from now.

Chanting 'I'm anti-Bush' every chance you get is NOT being relevant. It does makes you look hateful and divisive. Why? Because your anger at the president is unfounded and if you just have to preach at your fans you shouldn't be telling them how to vote but encouraging them to vote period.

Being anti-Bush your raison d'être? Illogical. OK, so you think W stole an election? Get angry at the voting system, not W. You'd think he'd created it from scratch and forced American voters to use it. Besides, after 8 years of WJC, did you really believe that getting 4 more years with Gore would be a snap? 8 of the 14 VPs who have become president did so because the boss died. The odds were not in Gore's favor. Ever.

You think the USA mistakenly went to war? Get angry at Congress for having said yes to W. You'd think he'd just picked up the phone and ordered the entire US military to go kick ass on a whim. You guys did take civics at school, right?

Surely there's a hammer here somewhere...

Have you heard the one about...

...the hostage in Iraq?

Reality meets reality show

An American who doesn't badmouth the Bush administration on a foreign TV show.

Go figure.

My next to last post about JoKe

I'm tired of his face. Thank goodness I don't have to hear his voice often... And after today's TanGate, frankly, I am all out of anything to say about him and the mere thought of him makes me queasy. I dream of seeing the back side of him as he walks out of public life. Forever, amen.

This fake but accurate tan he's now sporting... All he had to do was admit what he'd done. 'Therese spread it on a little thick, ha, ha' or 'I fell asleep in the tanning booth, hee, hee'.

No, he and his people put out some story about 'playing football'. Oh, pleeaaaasssse!

The next and final time I will post about him will be November 2.

A ghost of a man

Spector, 64, leaned on the arm of his attorney as the indictment in the slaying of 40-year-old Lana Clarkson was read. Spector showed no emotion in the courtroom, but outside he compared District Attorney Steve Cooley to Adolf Hitler.

"The actions of the Hitler-like DA and his storm trooper henchmen are reprehensible, unconscionable and despicable," said Spector, who remains free on $1 million bail.

Gee, Phil, you are so right. How dare that Cooley guy, like, you know, DO HIS JOB by prosecuting you, for an alleged murder no less.

And what about that other (alleged) celebrity killer? Why does it take so long to get these cases to court!?

There really should be a...law.

Oops! I lied once again

It's beginning to get comical, really. (Can't get trackbacking to work for their blog, never have. Scroll down to Was Kerry In Iraq In 1991 For Cease-Fire Accord?)

Has no one close to Kerry ever said 'John, you gotta stop making things up all the time'?

Amazing. He's a modern-day Munchhausen.

The Fake calls Allawi inaccurate

Who does JoKe think he is, calling PM Allawi a liar?! If that ain't the pot calling the kettle black, I don't know what it is.

You know what? I think we should apply the Rather Rules of Truth here, OK? Remember, fake can still be accurate, so it follows that the inverse is also applicable.

JoKe, you say Allawi's view of Iraq is 'inaccurate'? Even if it is, I say that that doesn't make it any less true.

Don't like it when other people are 'nuanced' and 'complex', do ya. DO YA.

UPDATE: Here's PM Allawi's speech to Congress. At the end he says 'God bless you'...

Letterman asks the right question

From Kerry Spot (emphasis mine):

Letterman asks him a direct question — “If you were elected in 2000, and you had the same intelligence information Bush had, would we be in Iraq right now?” Kerry is incapable of giving a yes or no answer. Turns to his “Bush rushed" stuff. Talks about how it isn't a true multilateral coalition. Now he's into a how he wants to double the number of special forces. "I want to do better intelligence."

Moore-on says Kerry 'so pathetic'

"Dammit [sic], of course he's a lousy candidate – he's a Democrat, for heavens sake! That party is so pathetic, they even lose the elections they win!"

Of course, that doesn't mean that Moore-on will vote for GWB. Of course.

In His image

Clinton's, that is.

From the same people.

And this is supposed to be... funny? No, just anti-Christian, as the "artist" himself explains.

GWB called a lizard by a Maus

Just seen on France 2, Spiegelman, hawking In the Shadow of No Towers, his latest book, calling the president a 'lizard'. Answering a question about the upcoming election, he says...

Me, I'm waiting for a mammal.

If we could have a mammal, in the future we could hope for a biped.

But the first step is throw out that cold-blooded lizard.

Note: He actually said 'those cold-blooded lizards' but France 2 translated him incorrectly.

No, no, Spiegelman, I can assure you that W is, in fact, a hedgehog.

I've had E-nough! French TV to last me the next few months... That'll teach me to even turn it on. I'll stick to British TV...on ITV tonite, maybe something worth watching.

Rotten Robbins

"We are dealing with a few neo-conservatives who believe that it is OK to lie if you are serving the greater good," said Robbins, an outspoken critic of the US-led war against Iraq.

"That kind of logic was on display in the months leading up to the war. It was clear an agenda was being followed."

"It was clear also, and sadly, that there was compliance in the American media," added the Oscar-winning actor.

"The American people are paying through their teeth for the war in Iraq, not only in financial terms but in terms of American lives and the effect on terrorism recruitment."

(Emphasis mine)

LOL Does anything he says make sense to anyone who isn't a member of the Church of Moonbat?

The great actor's opinion aside, what pisses me off most is that he is saying all this nonsense IN THE UK.

E-nough! already.

Kerry, the writer politic

Can't find a copy of The New Soldier?

Read it here if you have the stomach for it. And only if.

(Hat tip: Val in TX who found it here.)

Rebellion in the ranks!

Anybody see this?

Never did like him, like him even less now

I won't even type his name here.

Always thought he was an incredibly pompous and pretentious athlete. Saw him on the BBC yesterday with a HUGE diamond stud in his left ear. HUGE.

Over at LGF, they're calling this celebrity diarrhea of the mouth 'BDS'.

Celebr-hating America?

Taking a break from the break. Had the very bad idea not to turn off my TV tonight. Just finished watching the broadcast of Savary's show.

They can't help it. They just can't. . . help. . . it.

When it was time for the part celebrating American troops, Savary insisted on the fact that we had to thank them, pay tribute to those soldiers who fought and continued to fight after the Liberation of Paris and who "were polite enough to let the French enter Paris first."

But then visibly it was too much in such a short period.

[In English] A tribute to America that those days [emphasis not mine] was tota-lee perrrfecta . . . [After commenting on the fact that many French-American babies were conceived that night, in French] In Baghdad, it was different. We forgot to tell them the women were staying at home . . . [Pseudo African-American sings - in English? Hard to tell - Pause - Savary mentions Hemingway and those Americans who lived in Paris, and then came back to Paris. In French] Because there was a time when Americans came back. . . Americans were coming to Paris because it was a tolerant city, there was no racism, not like in the United States. . .

And Savary went on mentioning several African-American jazz musicians and taught the French audience about the segregation in America. He then read a letter by Sidney Bechet who wrote that at least, in France, he could "have sex with white women."

That was Jérôme Savary's tribute to America.

The apple fell far from the tree

Mark Thatcher in trouble...again.

Olympics: I've always wondered...

...why athletes running track events all seem to slow down a bit BEFORE they reach the finish line. I've been watching highlights tonite and some of the finishes are so close, you'd think they'd be putting on that last bit of steam at the finish, but they rarely do. Drives me crazy.

Can't somebody tell them to keep going at full speed for just a few more feet? Please. Pretty please. With sugar on top.

Going beyond the limits of stupidity

The award goes to Janet Jackson.

Kerry, the man with too many faces

...Kerry boldly makes the claim: “Let me tell you something, for 35 years I’ve been standing up and fighting against those special interests. I’m the only United Sates senator currently serving who has run four times ...who’s voluntarily run for reelection not with special interest money, not with PAC money, not with soft money...”

The truth is Kerry is "the Senate's number one recipient of individual campaign contributions from paid lobbyists," taking in more money – almost $640,000 – from them in the last 15 years than any other senator in Washington, and more than $6.3 million from lawyers since 1989. His presidential campaign has received nearly $3.5 million, making Kerry, long an opponent of tort reform (though he recently claimed he was now for tort reform), the second-highest recipient of money from trial lawyers of all U.S. senators.

As Sen. Zell Miller, D-Ga., puts it, Kerry is the "Olympic Gold Medalist when it comes to special interest money."

Don't eat before reading the rest here.

Celebrating the first anniversary

You may remember how just a little more than a year ago French rocker Bertrand Cantat had beaten to death his girlfriend, French actress Marie Trintignant and how he said he was devastated by her death.

Well, apparently he's doing just fine today.

French rock singer Bertrand Cantat . . . . staged a concert Wednesday for his fellow inmates at the Lukiskiu prison complex, his lawyer said.

"The concert lasted for an hour and the hall was full," Virginijus Papirtis told AFP.

The 40-year-old lead singer of the group Noir Desir played guitar and harmonica as he performed 20 songs in English and French in a church on the prison grounds. His lawyer said Cantat decided to give the concert after recovering his guitar from Lithuanian prosecutors.

"His fingers were bloody when he tried it for the first time after so long," Papirtis said. His brother Xavier was present at Wednesday's concert.

His fingers can be bloody, Marie Trintignant is still dead.

You wake up

As if the place was not already flooded with trashy anti-Bush CDs, R&B and Hip-Hop self-proclaimed divas and queens have recorded one more.

MARY J BLIGE, EVE and MISSY ELLIOTT have recorded an anti-BUSH song in a bid to sway US voters away from the American President.

The trio have re-recorded the 1960s hit 'Wake Up Everybody' for the benefit album, 'America Coming Together', which aims to promote a change of President.

Songs by Yoko Ono, Linda Ronstadt and Marvin Gaye are also included on the album.

Kenny 'Babyface' Edmonds is producing the track for the record, which was originally a hit by Harold Melvin and the Bluenotes, BBC news reports.

He said: "This song is the spirit of the country and all these artists have the will to change it."

My guess is the cover/remake of the song is going to be highly philosophical judging by the protagonists.

All in all, a lot of bitches but nothing really hot.

King of Worms Redux: White Lie Xmas

Here. And developing at Drudge.

Mrs. Heinz-Worm

What is it with these people and their lie-telling?! (Via LGF)

Base instinct

You just have to wonder what good these people think they're doing, bad-mouthing their own president overseas. Another loony into the bin.

John 'I'm so opportunistic' Kerry

If you've got friends or family who don't believe he is King Weathervane, get them to watch the Kerry Iraq Documentary one way or another.

It sure convinced me. ;)

Hasten down the wind

Oh, Linda. Wish I'd been there to see this.

Ronstadt's comments drew loud boos and some of the 4,500 people in attendance stormed out of the theater. People also tore down concert posters and tossed cocktails into the air.

"It was a very ugly scene," Aladdin President Bill Timmins told The Associated Press. "She praised him and all of a sudden all bedlam broke loose."

OK, so she wasn't really risking anything because it was a one-night stand and was probably hoping for some free publicity, but she couldn't have known how the audience would react.

Today, the news has been making me chuckle. ;)

It's your audience, idiot!

Some substances are damaging to the brain. They really are. That is, for those who do have a brain.

Sir Elton John has hit out at the "bullying tactics" used by the US government to stop artistic dissent.

The millionaire singer said entertainers who criticised the Bush administration or its policy on the Iraq war risked damage to their careers.

The truth is that, indeed, support to bloody dictators and/or terrorist organizations isn't exactly boosting careers these days, except if you happen to be yourself a dictator, an Al-Qaeda member, or French.

"There's an atmosphere of fear in America right now that is deadly. Everyone is too career-conscious. They're all too scared," he said.

Hmm. Deadly. Sometimes, I wish ridicule really was. Are you scared yet?

Speaking to the New York magazine Interview, Sir Elton said: "Things have changed. I don't know if there's been a time when the fear factor played such an important role in America since McCarthyism in the 1950s, as it does now."

Is fear in the house? Can you feel it? Can you feel it? Can you feel it? Because we can certainly hear it even if we can't feel it. Way too loud.

The singer said things were different in the 1960s when: "People like Bob Dylan, Nina Simone, The Beatles and Pete Seeger were constantly writing and talking about what was going."

"That's not happening now. As of this spring, there have been virtually no anti-war concerts - or anti-war songs that catch on, for that matter," he said.

Oh, "catch on"... You mean people don't buy them, despite the fact that they're available. Does Sir Elton John catch on?

Sir Elton said performers could be put off speaking out because it might be that they are "frightened by the current administration's bullying tactics when it comes to free speech".

True. I confess. I am a special agent working for the Bush administration and as such, I won't buy any CD from the pro-Saddam, anti-Bush, anti-American crew. The problem is that there appears to be a LOT of us using those "bullying tactics".

He singled out the country singer Toby Keith and the band The Dixie Chicks as two examples of the way pro- and anti-Bush opinions were received.

"On the one hand, you have someone like Toby Keith, who has come out and been very supportive of the Bush administration and the war in Iraq - which is OK because America is a democracy and Toby Keith is entitled to say what he thinks and feels.

"But, on the other hand, the Dixie Chicks got shot down in flames last year for criticising the president. They were treated like they were being un-American, when in fact they have every right to say whatever they want about him because he's freely elected, and therefore accountable."

And they did express their opinion more than once. And apologized in between. And you know what, people who listen to the music and ultimately buy the CDs - the audience, not bullying tactics nor censorship - are free to disagree "which is OK because America is a democracy", right? The Dixie Chicks just have to live with the fact that words have meanings and acting stupidly does have consequences.

As for Sir Elton John, maybe he could finally come out of his fantasy, parallel world and be man - ahem - enough to acknowledge that Bush-bashing is simply the trendy thing to do when you're an old singer trying to get media attention.

Now, get out of my beloved New York City, for fear I use my bullying tactics.

Hollywood cleaning up act

Surely I won't be the only one to find this ironic.

The new rule "prohibits specific and disparaging references to other pictures or individuals competing in a given category in ads, mailings, websites or other forms of campaign communication".

Now THAT is rich!

Whoopi whopped

You've got the right to say it, but that doesn't mean everyone's got to like what you say. And when someone doesn't like what you say, it is NOT censorship.

Whoopi seems to think so:

"...just because I'm no longer in those spots, it doesn't mean I will stop talking"...

Again, no one is censoring you. On the contrary, you got up and did your schtick in front of an audience!

Lileks has written this about the celebrity anti-Bush militia:

They are also entitled to dissent, of course. We do not live in a world where we wake to the sound of trumpets and face our telescreens at full attention to hear the latest glorious news of the war -- Brothers! Doubleplus tidings! A major breakthrough on the Eastern Front! Chocorations increased 17 percent in celebration!

...you'd think we were an election away from just such a world...

Kerry...praised the performers as the "heart and soul" of America. Yes, that's the crowd that best exemplifies this country: 3,000 rich celebs who don't know what they pay in taxes unless the accountant tells them.

If you can't take the heat...shut up.

Surely there's a law against this!

The family of U.S. Air Force Maj. Gregory Stone was shocked to learn that video footage of the major's Arlington National Cemetery burial was included by Michael Moore in his movie "Fahrenheit 9/11." Maj. Stone was killed in March 2003 by a grenade that officials said was thrown into his tent by Sgt. Hasan K. Akbar, who is on trial for murder. "It's been a big shock, and we are not very happy about it, to say the least," Kandi Gallagher, Maj. Stone's aunt and family spokeswoman, tells Washington Times reporter Audrey Hudson. "We are furious that Greg was in that casket and cannot defend himself, and my sister, Greg's mother, is just beside herself," Miss Gallagher said. "She is furious. She called him a 'maggot that eats off the dead.' " The movie, described by critics as political propaganda during an election year, shows video footage of the funeral and Maj. Stone's fiancee, Tammie Eslinger, kissing her hand and placing it on his coffin. The family does not know how Mr. Moore obtained the video, and Miss Gallagher said they did not give permission and are considering legal recourse. She described her nephew as a "totally conservative Republican" and said he would have found the film to be "putrid." "I'm sure he would have some choice words for Michael Moore," she said. "Michael Moore would have a hard time asking our family for a glass of water if he were thirsty."

(Emphasis mine)

What else can I say?

(Hat tip: andy from our threads who found it in the Wash Times)

UPDATE: Another ghoulish excuse of a man. (Hat tip: ILJN)

Bum rap

Yankee Poodle & ToyBoy have found their official campaign song: Why by someone called Jadakiss. Here are just a few choice morcels.

Why did Kobe have to hit that raw / Why he kiss that whore...

Why did Bush knock down the towers...

And why do niggaz lie in eighty-five percent of they rhymes...

Why they let the terminator win the election...

Why Halle have to let a white man pop her to get a Oscar / Why Denzel have to be crooked before he took it...

Why they ain't give us a cure for aids

Wanna hear the great artist explain away his false Bush-bashing lyrics?

"I wanted to make a song that could appeal to a broader -- and not only the hood," he says. "I wanted to make something that would touch people at home in white America. I was thinking, 'What's the one thing that everyone has in common? Questions.' Everyone asks why, so I decided to write a song asking questions that everyone wants to," he adds.

As for the controversial line, ..., the rapper's view is unwavering. ''...A lot of my people felt that he had something to do with it."

So your 'people' have these questions and you decided to 'make' a song that reached out to...um...white people for...um...what exactly? Answers?

OK, so in your 'song', a woman who takes a man to court for rape is a wh*re, someone 'let' Arnold win California, the Halle and Denzel cracks are too black-on-black racist to get into here, apparently people should be 'giving' the world a cure for AIDS, and finally...GWB must have eaten one big bowl of Wheaties on 9/11... Not a very nice view (yours not mine, remember) of the inside of your 'people's' heads. Actually, a very ugly one.

Of course, it could all be a marketing ploy, albeit one in exceedingly poor taste. He goes on to say:

"They're censoring me all over the place, and that's good...That means it's reaching out to everybody. When I made the song, I wrote it to be political, controversial, and to stir some things up. Somebody has to take the forefront and sacrifice...That's what I do -- I sacrifice myself."

Uh, huh. You be bleeding all the way to the bank.

Well, at least he tells us that 85% of 'niggaz' lie in their raps. Small comfort.

Don't kill Bill

Cosby, that is. Seems he's still a little angry...

"For me there is a time ... when we have to turn the mirror around," he said. "Because for me it is almost analgesic to talk about what the white man is doing against us. And it keeps a person frozen in their seat, it keeps you frozen in your hole you're sitting in."

Read the rest here.

Michael Moore is moving to France for good...

...in 4 months. HELP!
Emphasis and links are mine.

The movie of American [director] Michael Moore, "Fahrenheit 9/11", Palme d'Or at the Cannes Festival, has been welcomed with warmth and emotion on Thursday evening in Paris, where it was played ahead of the official start of the Paris-Cinema festival.


The Grand Rex movie theater, the biggest viewing room in Europe with about 3,000 seats, was full, with numerous entertainment celebrities - Catherine Deneuve, Guy Bedos, Andréa Ferréol, Oliver Stone, Juliette Binoche...


Harvey Weinstein, one of the producers of the movie, has read a letter by Michael Moore who regretted not to be able to be in Paris for the [premiere]. "Many newspapers write that this movie could have more impact on the election than anything else. I hope this will be true", writes Moore.


He also thanked the French for their "support". "I hope to come back to France when we have accomplished our mission" to make George Bush leave the White House, but "if I fail, I will move to France for good", he added.


Mr. Delanoë saluted the "huge success" of the movie in the United States. "It is very important and it's a pleasure", he added.


Christophe Girard, deputy mayor in charge of culture, considered at the end of the projection that it was "a lesson for all democracies", that showed how "corruption, manipulation, the concern for personal interest can lead any system to a kind of folly".


He said he hoped that President Jacques Chirac and the government watch the movie. "Democracy isn't to be taken for granted, exception laws can lead to a democratic dictatorship", he added.


"It is overwhelming for the world we live in", Guy Bedos commented, saying also that he was "rather proud that our country did not participate" to the war in Iraq. "This kind of movie, it is saving America's honor", he added.

Just another American

Thanks to No Pasaran! for this one. In certain anti-American quarters, disappointment reigns, apparently.

With Europeans lining up and shelling out to read Bill Clinton, he turns out to be a guy who insists on reminding people that two-thirds of the Democratic Party in Congress voted George W. Bush the specific powers he needed to make war in Iraq. Then, piling it on, he goes and says that France and Germany wrongly made light of the threat posed by Saddam Hussein.

Can you just imagine their faces? I can. Hee, hee.

Major Barbra

From her own website.

"PEOPLE" Special Lyrics By Alan & Marilyn Bergman

PEOPLE I MEAN G - O - P - EOPLE -
WHO'D BELIEVE THERE'S SUCH PEOPLE IN THIS WORLD?
BUSH SEEZA LOTTA CONDOLEEZA,
THEY'RE DIVIDING THE PLANET'S OIL ACCORDING TO RICHARD "POIL"
AND THEY'RE ALL JUST TRAINEES OF CHENEY'S.

RUMSFELD, WE MUST GET RID OF RUMSFELD -
HE'S THE SPOOKIEST PERSON IN THE WORLD.
AS FOR POWELL - HE'S NEITHER FISH NOR FOWL.
HE'S IN THE BACK OF THE ROOM, WHILE THEY'RE ALL FIDDLING WITH DOOM.
NO ONE'S MINDING THE STORE.
WHAT'S MORE, LET'S DISCUSS THIS WAR WE'RE LOST IN,
DON'T ASK WHAT IT'S COSTIN' - WHAT'S A TRILLION OR TWO TO RULE THE WORLD?

(Second chorus)
THE SENATE HOW I WANT THE SENATE!
ALL WE NEED IS TWO PEOPLE IN THE WORLD!
I SEEA ANTONIN SCALIA.
HOW I DREAD EV'RY TIME HE SITS - SCARED OUT OF MY WOLFOWITZ.
TIME THOSE NEO-CON GUYS WERE GONE GUYS.

THEY'RE LYING - WHILE THE GLOBE IS FRYING -
AND THE FISHES ARE DYING IN THE WORLD.
THEIR SOLUTION FOR ALL OF THE POLLUTION:
IS JUST TO BEAR IT AND GRIN, AND PRACTICE NOT BREATHING IN.
BUT THINGS ARE GONNA BE GREAT.
JUST WAIT - WHEN THE WHITE HOUSE STATIONERY,
READS PRESIDENT JOHN KERRY - WE'LL BE THE LUCKIEST PEOPLE IN THE WORLD!

I'm surprised you didn't choose to rework Free the People, Babs.

Free the people from the fire Pull the boat out of the raging sea Tell the devil He’s a liar Come and save the likes of me

How to be gracious 101

Follow Venus' example.

The one with my last post on Fahrenheit 9/11...EVER

There are days when I really enjoy reading Chris Hitchens.

Thus, in spite of the film's loaded bias against the work of the mind, you can grasp even while watching it that Michael Moore has just said, in so many words, the one thing that no reflective or informed person can possibly believe: that Saddam Hussein was no problem. No problem at all. Now look again at the facts I have cited above. If these things had been allowed to happen under any other administration, you can be sure that Moore and others would now glibly be accusing the president of ignoring, or of having ignored, some fairly unmistakable "warnings."

Moore-on again...

"... I think it was around Tuesday, I'd just finished this interview with Matt Lauer and [it was] attack! attack! attack! ... So I said to my wife, 'You know what I need for my head -- I gotta go to Canada for a day and I gotta watch this movie just once in a room full of Canadians.' "

Oh, Canada! Can you guys keep him? Please? Pretty please? With sugar on top?

FYI: Fluff piece to read on an empty stomach.

Where was he?

Amazing!

If I weren't around for the important meetings at work, I'd have been bounced long ago...

Aw, shucks

Look who's campaigning for JoKe now. Jodi Wilgoren.

Jerk-o-rama

Can you guess who said the following?

I hope this country will be back in our hands in a short period of time.

And what about this?

I don't think the media should be in the business of pulling punches from the left or from the right.

You may be disappointed.

Someone's cashing in...

“Hello, I’m Alexandra Polier. I’m one of your constituents.” I’d grown up outside Boston, and he looked pleased to hear a familiar accent. “What are you doing here?” he asked cheerily, and ordered me a drink. We moved swiftly through American foreign policy to his political ambitions. “I think you’re going to be the next president of the United States,” I said with a confidence that probably seemed very forward. “Oh, you do, do you?” he replied, looking slightly amused. He asked if I had any desire to work on a political campaign, so I ran through my résumé. He seemed impressed, and after sharing Davos gossip for fifteen minutes, he shook my hand and said, “Get in touch with my office. Maybe there’s something you can do for the campaign.”

Uh, huh.

War Crimes Museum

I don't know why but I somehow never imagined that Ho Chi Minh City would have a museum at all...but sure enough, it's there on the tourist information page. Found the link to this one at LGF. You can't miss Fluff 'n Nutter.

Lucidity

I think I'll put my disgust at Tarantino's Cannes-tastrophy to rest by mentioning a little window of lucidity about Moore-on. In the French press. Hard to believe?

Let me translate a little of it for you. After describing Moore as 'honorable' due to his desire to honor his parents and their political ideology, Alexandre Adler asks...

Is he lucid? A lot could be said about his latest series of films. The first...forgets to tell us that...his home state of Michigan has recovered...and has created dozens of thousands of jobs...notably related to new technologies, jobs that would never have existed if not for freer exchange on the international market.

...The same observation can be made about his second film about firearms proliferation...Again, Moore plays prosecutor and shows us a Canadian utopia...without mentioning that in New England, possession and use of firearms are as moderate as in Canada... Neither does he mention that...Michigan abolished the death penalty in 1856...and never reestablished it...even when Detroit became the most violent city in the USA. Nor does he show abusive arms use by...Nation of Islam...

More serious, in Bowling for Columbine, no mention is made of the bad influence of the media and, in particular,...the Internet, which had decisive influences...on the three guilty teenagers. (Moore) prefers to point a finger at firearms sales and nothing else...and...having crossed the line of decency and respect of others, closes the film with an interview with Charles Eston (sic), whose Alzheimer's was obvious.

He goes on to say that this same cruelty, all for Moore's 'cause', of course, is also seen in the film that won Cannes. But he wonders...

Is he a serious film-maker? Moore is no more a serious film-maker than I am driving the car when I'm in a taxi.

And later...after mentioning that what Moore does for his 'just' cause is, indeed propaganda, Adler is disappointed that by giving his film the Palmes d'Or, the jury was actually going AGAINST the ideas that were at the origin of the creation of the festival - to protest pervasive Mussolinian propaganda in films, he says...

...Moore works, remember, within the most advanced and successful cinematic culture and industry on earth so where is the talent, the artistic endeavor? And dare I say...where is the audacity in a European jury wildly applauding an example of propaganda that feeds the public's anti-American hunger, a public that thinks it already knows everything about Bush, his entourage and his people?

Further on, he brings up 'our anti-Americanism'...

Maybe it's a good idea, amidst the applause, to remind our fellow citizens that anti-Americanism is not what it's cut out to be. First, base resentment leads us to enclose ourselves in 'only them, never us' certitudes that don't make us any smarter. Anti-Americanism doesn't make us more esthete, either. By promoting the success of a film with no grace nor complexity, no artistic endeavor nor remorse, the Cannes jury left all lucidty behind. From now on, must we believe that good intentions will be the equivalent of excellence - if so, why not honor Amelie Poulain?

To finish, after saying that he understands Moore's devotion to his parents' experience and the justice Moore wants for them, he suggests there is a more profound justice to consider...

We are a week away from the 60th aniversary of D-Day when thousands of young inexperienced American soldiers came to...save the freedoms of a vacillating Europe. I don't think that it's very honorable to begin the commemoration by spitting in the face of the legitimate leaders who represent America, leaders chosen through universal sufferage since 1788.

Chick freaks out French jazz lovers

At a jazz festival here in France yesterday, Chick Corea caused a scandal by having these handed out...

...to the audience during intermission.

In fact, BEFORE the concert, he had had these placed...

...on the audience's seats. The festival director found out and had them removed before the concert began.

Oh, Chick. Clearwater. What a disappointment. Isn't a concert supposed to be about the music?

The director of the festival says that Chick will never be invited again. Who can blame him. Not I.

Good choice, Sean

And SUBTLE. Your choice in films, I mean (scroll down to #9). Attractive title. That'll pull in those audiences overseas. A tad...exploitive, perhaps, don't you think? Richard Nixon...assassination... The story, too, when you think about it. Hijacking...crash...White House... Aw, maybe it's just me. Forget I mentioned it.

You know, I had to go look up your film credits because I've only seen, and I can't believe this, TWO of them. I saw Taps and...well, I don't remember you at all. And that's saying something because I have a VERY good memory. I remember T Cruise fairly well in it. And T Hutton, a little. But not you.

I also saw The Falcon and the Snowman. I see in the review that you played a junkie, so you were...Snowman, right? I have a vague memory of dark glasses and...a rooftop...? And what the heck was that song about anyway? Never mind. That movie must've convinced me to forego any more flicks you starred in, I think, because I haven't seen any of your work since...1985! No, really, I've been really, really busy. REALLY busy.

I hear you find time to be a political animal, too. Hey, your present stance can only be helpful to you at Cannes.

You know how French people wish each other 'Good luck!'? They say 'Merde!'. Well, here's 'Merde!' to you. And I mean it. Really.

So you take a shotgun...

from your gun cabinet, which is in your BEDROOM. (Very...uh, romantic.) You are showing guests around your 40-room house and you decide that they need to see your bedroom and your shotgun.

You are stupid enough to think that playing with a gun while it is loaded is OK. You are stupid enough to forget that your own brother once took your dad's shotgun and shot another one of your brothers with it. You are also stupid enough to forget that you yourself once nearly shot another pro athlete named Chrebet.

For some reason, the chauffeur you've hired FOR THE NIGHT, a total stranger, is in the bedroom with you and your guests. You shoot the poor man and he proceeds to bleed to death on your bedroom floor.

What to do? Feeling a little flustered? Well, your wife is a LAWYER who could have advised you herself or have gotten advice for you. Call 911 and ask for an ambulance? Nah, too easy. You decide that you are going to make the shooting look like...suicide. Right, OK, the chauffeur was suicidal and he decided that the time had come to do something about it, man. In your bedroom. Happens all the time. Very believable.

You have your brother call 911 and lie for you.

In the end, the jury decided to let you off lightly and you may never even go to prison. Oh, you've already paid the chauffeur's family some money, so that's OK. Why waste a beautiful human being like yourself on prison. Hey, those guns need looking after, you know. You know, the ones you keep in your BEDROOM.

You played at St John's University, so you must have gone to some classes while you were there. You were a professional athlete for years and later became a sports commentator. You married, adopted children, fathered a child*. But you still had nothing in you but the desire to cover your ASS when you were responsible for a stranger bleeding to death on your carpet.

Perhaps you were drunk. I've been drunk and I think shooting someone would be a pretty quick sober-upper.

Amazing, nobody who was with you at the party could convince you to do the right thing, either. After all, it was your house. Your bedroom. Your gun. Your lack of character. Your dying chauffeur.

Lack of character probably won't stop you from enjoying your liberty, I imagine. A little piece of advice - give up the guns. Especially ones that malfunction exactly at the wrong moment.

Malfunction.

* (A second child was perfectly timed to come to term during the trial. Btw, you and your wife should be sued for naming your offspring 'Tryumph' and 'Whizdom'. If you absolutely had to call them that, what on earth was wrong with just plain old 'Triumph' and Wisdom'!)

Will she ever move back to Canada again?

The Canadian singer who once released three not-so-good records in her native Canada, is once again spitting at the country that made her international success possible.

Morissette, hosting Canada's annual music awards, said the stunt, in which she appeared in a provocative skin-hugging body-suit was intended to expose US "censorship."
The singer, renowned for her angst-ridden lyrics, told the audience at the Juno Awards in Edmonton "we live in a land where we still think the human body is beautiful and we're not afraid of the female breast."
"I am proud to be able to stand here and do this," Morissette said, to wild cheers from the audience at Sunday night's show.
Morissette then blasted US radio stations which have forced her to change the word "asshole" in one of her songs.

It took an American songwriter though, Glen Ballard, to make Alanis Morissette really successful, after she was signed to an American label, run by another notorious, America-bashing, I-like-to-pose-half-naked American singer.

So we now have Madonna's label's artist Alanis "I-wanna-be-naked-
running-through-the-streets" Morissette (Remember her 'Thank U' video btw?), offering Janet Jackson Canadian cultural refugee status for her 2004 Superbowl performance. Team up and create a band, girls!

And of course, as always, Alanis is having fun in the process, ridiculing nothing or nobody but herself:

Morissette disrobed on stage to reveal a skin-colored, naked body suit with nipples and pubic hair.
As part of the skit, Morissette was then told by the show's assistant director that "actually, we can't show nipples or pubic hair on national TV," at which time the Ottawa-born singer pulled off the fake body parts.
The satirical act, says Morissette, was aimed at U.S. government institutions for over-reacting to cultural, free expression...

Let's remember what Alanis Morissette had to say following 9/11:

"My hope is that the people who are making decisions about how to respond to the events will take both self-care and compassion into account with consciousness and awareness of our interconnectedness as beings."

Was she implying an "interconnectedness" with the terrorists? She may feel interconnected with barbarian bastards, I know I am not.

Then, less than 6 months after 9/11, the "awakening Canadian" slammed at "Us privileged, ugly Americans":

I wonder how we change if we can in this land
I wonder how many mountains we'd move if we band together
Us privileged Americans

I wonder what we change in this land, cause we can
Even with western centricity, this rampant
Us ugly Americans

Alanis, if America's so bad and censored, how come you had to leave your wonderful Canada to succeed? I am not surprised though, that you have surrendered to US so-called censorship (In just about 10 minutes).