Daily Show Documetary On Fox News - Brilliant!

I just had to post this. It's perhaps one of the best looks at the reality of FOX News.

The Dark Knight - See It In Imax

I don't do movie reviews often here, but last night my partner and I wen to see "The Dark Night" in Imax. Quite an experience!

The movie is much darker than any previous Batman film, or for that matter than any other comic book inspired movie and that is OK. The plot has characters that, though they are analogs of the comic, have all the dimension of a good drama. That is rare on the latest crop of comic book movies. Most, like Ironman, have been fun, but would hardly qualify as thought provoking drama.

No so for The Dark Night.

This movie raises some really deep existential questions about what qualifies as good and evil, as well as digging deep into the whole "meaning of life" thing. Heath Leger, as the Joker, is haunting and very disturbing. He is a genuine madman, but with the kind of persona that gets under your skin and makes you want to like him, homicidal maniac and all. That quality is what makes sociopaths so powerful. They can be charming and frightening at the same time. As the Joker tells his, "how my face got this way" story over and over. It actually draws you into to his psyche, until you find it's a different story every time. He actually made me shudder, and having his face so large you could see every scab and scar of his greasepaint covered disfigured face, made it even more creepy.

Portions of the movie were actually shot in the Imax format. those parts really put this movie over the top for me. Though there was a bit of a jum between aspect ratios, it actually worked to focus action on the characters when needed, and give a larger scope to the move when the panoramas of Gotham appeared.

Christian Bale is perhaps the best Batman of them all. He is sophisticated yet deeply tortured as the character should be, and yet he never goes over the top like so many comic book heros.

I suggest seeing this film in Imax, but be prepared to make reservations days in advance, it is sold out much of the time.

Gay Porn Star Writing For Right Wing Website!

What FOX is to TV news, World News Daily is to online news. It's a blatantly right-wing publication with little in the way of real news that hasn't been filtered and spun into a neocon confection.

So knowing this, I was surprised when I saw everybody's favorite "gay for pay" porn actor writing a column for WND. First let me say I have no problem with actors in adult films, gay, straight or otherwise. Here is my problem.

Matt Sanchez, the ex-military stud who starred in several gay porn productions and worked as an escort for male clients, writes a bizarre Op-Ed piece against repealing "Don't Ask Don't Tell".

It not only seems strange that a gay porn actor should be against the repeal, but that he claims he was embedded with the troops in Iraq and Afghanistan. I guess his presence didn't cause "unit cohesion" to fail.

What's worse is that his "commentary" is a rambling almost unreadable piece with so many illogical jumps as to make one's head spin. His assumption that the military would have all gay units is ludicrous. More odd is his assumption that openly gay soldiers would "hook up" in the barracks.

NOTE TO MR. SANCHEZ: Matt, darling, that only happens in the movies you make. Sex in the barracks is against military rules gay, straight or otherwise!

For the curious who are not at work, here is Matt in action!

Bush Administration Ordered Forged Letter To Implicate Saddam In 9/11 Attacks

It just gets worse and worse for the Bush folks. Not only did Ron Suskind point the finger at them as the ones who instigated the forged letter that was used by the White House to rally the country to war with Iraq, but now it looks like it was Doug Feith’s Office of Special Plans. That puts it directly in the executive branch arena.

Read the story on Think Progress about how Cheney passed this task of forging documents to Feith's office. Then write a letter to Nancy Pelosi and ask her again why impeachment is off the table!

Insurance Company Rules! Make Them Up As You Go

US Military Using WW2-Style Sweat Boxes For Iraqi Prisoners

Remember the scene in Bridge on the River Kwai where Alec Guiness is confined to a small wooden crate where he almost dies of dehydration? The "sweat box" was one of the cruelest tortures used by the Japanese against military prisoners of war.

Well guess what? Taking a page from the torture manual of the pre-war Japanese Empire, our glorious leaders have started using similar tortures in Iraq. The US military have reinvented the "sweat box" and called them "segregation boxes". These nasty devices are small wooden crates used in Iraq to hold prisoners. Measuring 3 feet square and about 6 feet tall, these crates are disturbingly similar to the ones used in WWII.

The amazing creativity of our government in dregging into the dark ages to reinvent the Inquisition boggles the mind. After so much outrage over Abu Ghraib you would think this kind of crap would stop, but not on Bush's watch. These guys figure if it was good enough for Torquimada it's good enough for us. Now why was impeachment off the table Ms Pelosi?

McCain's Offshore Drilling Fiasco

OK McCain, it's time to cut the happy crap about offshore drilling having an immediate effect on the nation's oil supply. I live here in Texas and I know lots of folks in the oil biz. Offshore drilling is not something that happens in a matter of months. It is not something that happens in a year or two. It takes many years for those offshore rigs to produce.

According to one estimate, an offshore oil platform takes from 3 to 5 years just to build the platform. Add to that the time it takes to actually drill down to the oil, after all it's not right below the surface, and you have a lead time of 6 to 10 years for production. At that rate John McCain will be in a retirement home, even if he won (God forbid) the election and got reelected!

So Mr. McCain, when you start lying about how offshore drilling is going to be the solution to our oil problems, take a moment, a deep breath and tell the truth. There is no quick fix to our problems. We have wasted our natural resources by burning the petroleum we had and have made no serious attempt at finding alternative fuels.

I am fully aware that wind power and solar power are not the quick fix either, but renewable energy sources offer a much better long term solution than just sucking more oil from the already declining supply. Renewable energy is available now, and it has much less of a carbon footprint than oil. If we put as much money into it as we do in oil exploration we would already be off our addiction to foreign oil and in a much better position to face the future.

And that nuclear power you are touting? Well nuclear plants take even longer to build than oil platforms and they produce lots of toxic waste that must be dealt with. Unless you want your state to end up with a backyard full of nuclear waste drums, the problems of disposal of the waste is almost insurmountable.

So Mr. McCain, reconsider inflating your tires to full pressure and take measures to conserve energy, because your plan will have no effect in the next four years.

Turkish Bear Killed In Turkish Hate Crime - Gays Not Safe In Turkey

Ahmet Yildiz, a 26 year old physics student represented his country at the International Bear Rendezvous, a gay gathering in San Francisco last year. Ahmet was shot and killed outside a cafe in Istanbul in what his friends believe was Turkey's first gay honor killing.

I received word via my friend Kaptainbear, a Frenchman who was a close friend of Ahmet. The news of his death highlights the problems Turkey is having moving into the modern world. Secularists are having a hard time fighting for human rights and because of the strife between Islamic Fundamentalists and the secular government of Turkey, things have gotten tough for the gay community.

Ahmet's death shows just how violent religious fundamentalism can be. If we ever begin to think that our country is so much better, just remember the shooting in Nashville a couple of weeks ago. That hate crime was fueled by religious fundamentalism as well, the only difference was one man read the Koran and the other read the King James Bible.

McCain's In The Pocket Of Big Oil - New Obama Ad

Here's another Obama ad. This one about McCain's Big Oil contributors. Though I like the message, I would have done it differently, the voice-over announcer sounds exactly like every other political announcer. I would have either used Barack's voice or maybe a woman's voice just to separate it from the clutter.

Economic Stimulus - Apparently Not So Much

Remember those economic stimulus checks? Well, looks like most of them actually ended up in the oil companies pockets due to rising fuel prices. Even at $3.88 gas is about a buck higher than this time last year and according to economists, the surge in fuel and food prices pretty much evaporated any "stimulus" those checks might have created.

According to an AP report, the senior U.S. economist at Global Insight, a private forecasting firm, said the GDP could post back-to-back declines in those two quarters, meeting the traditional definition of a recession.

"The rebates are not translating into anywhere near the spending impulse that Congress and the administration had hoped for," he said. "Under these circumstances, the economy remains in very fragile condition."

Wonder what other gimmick the Bush folks will think up before they are driven out of office?

Playgirl Magazine Folds

Just saw a blurb on Huffington Post that the long time "women's magazine" Playgirl has decided to shutter its print edition. It will continue on the web but no more as a print publication.

I remember my mom deing so excited when Playgirl first came out. She got herself a subscription and proudly displayed it on the coffee table of our home. I guess all those years of my dad reading the "articles" in Playboy got to her.

For gay men, Playgirl offered mainstream availability of "beefcake" photos. You could always buy a Playgirl and claim it was for your girlfriend. Gurlfriend!

Bush Pressured FBI To Blame Al Qaeda For Anthrax Attacks - Yet Another Impeachable Offense!

OK, so I am back with my original theory about the Anthrax attacks. As I suspected, Bruce Ivins may have very well been the culprit, but the White House pressured the FBI to connect the attacks with Al Qaeda. Meanwhile John McCain was on David Letterman already blaming the Iraqi's. Here is the video from ThinkProgress.org. Remember this and really think hard before you vote for this guy in November.



Additionally, check out this article about how the FBI was coerced to point the finger at Al Qaeda. This is beyond troubling, it's very much criminal. As a further reading I suggest this one by Glenn Greenwald of Salon.com. It's extensivce and well researched, too.

McCain Exhibits Disturbing Confusion - Dementia?

This is a troubling video. McCain took a question from an audience member and absolutely could not answer the question. He looked befuddled, perhaps a little daft. This is not the kind of thing you want to see in a presidential candidate.

Anthrax Conspiracy? Maybe Not.

Well I might have to pull myself back from the lunatic fringe on this anthrax matter. Bruce Ivins the man who the FBI was going to arrest in the 2001 Anthrax attack may have stood to profit from the ensuing panic. We will never know for sure since he allegedly committed suicide, but a story in the LA Times today stated that he owned part of a patent on an Anthrax Vaccine that had been shelved until the 2001 attacks.

His motive in the attacks could have simply been greed. Once the panic started, the vaccines came off the shelf and development on them went back into full steam research. That means he would have profited from the panic, and might make a pretty good motive for the fake terrorist letters.

So far, I am somewhat less inclined to jump off the conspiracy cliff, but time will tell.

Suspect In 2001 Anthrax Attacks Conveniently Turns Up Dead

I always knew that someday I might join the ranks of the conspiracy theorists regarding the US decision to invade Iraq, and today is the day.

What was the tipping point? Well, the reported suicide of Bruce Ivins, a government scientist who works with Anthrax, and was reported to be a "person of interest" by the FBI in the 2001 Anthrax attacks pretty much did it for me.

Those who have good memories will recall that right after September 11, a series of letters showed up in the offices of news organizations and government officials. The hand written missives included sayings like "Allah is Great" and "You will die now". The kicker was that the envelopes contained powdered, weaponized anthrax. The whole thing added a real sense of panic to the country .

Much of that panic was directed at Iraq. Several people made veiledand not so vieled references to Iraq's bioweapon capabilities, including the president in the State of the Union speech that winter. Follow that with a report by ABC news that bentonite had been found in the samples and Saddam Hussien was the only person who used bentonite in his chemical weapons and the smoking gun pointed at Iraq.

How convenient! Now it is well known that the Bush administration wanted to invate Iraq long before 9/11 and Bush operatives had even been quoted as saying that they wanted to find a connection between the World Trade Center disaster and Saddam. Now ABC claimed it had numerous sources in the government who confirmed the bentonite component which would fingerprint Iraq as the culprit.

Follow this with Colin Powel shaking his bottle of white powder in the UN General Assembly and even more sabre rattling and things get pretty suspicious.

Meanwhile the FBI kept up its investigation and first suspected Dr. Steven J. Hatfill a former researcher for the Army's bioweapons division in Ft. Detrick, Md. Though they never brought charges Dr. Hatfill was under intense scrutiny and his status as "Person of Interest" was leaked by the Justice Department when the Iraq connection went cold.

Seems there was no bentonite in the Anthrax that was sent in the attacks. Apparently there never was, and ABC news was duped by at least 4 sources both in the government and outside it.
Glen Greenwald at Salon.com has the full story about that. The troubling thing is that ABC News will not release the names of the sources that gave them the phony story. Again, how convenient.

Meanwhile, Bush had his war going full steam and the Anthrax investigation dissappeared from the public eye. Still the FBI toiled in private seeking the culprit.

Then this June, the government pays off it's "Person of Interest" Dr. Hatfill to the tune of $5.82 million. Dr. Hatfill, is now silent on the whole matter, though that is understandable since his character was assissinated by the Justice Department leak making his life less that fun for the past 7 years.

That leaves us today with this news of Ivin's apparent suicide. According to reports, Ivins suspected that he would be charged opr at least harrassed by the FBI in connection with the case and took an overdose of Tylenol and codine. It is important to note that Ivins was one of the researchers assisting the FBI in the investigation of the anthrax samples in the first place.

Does it take a rocket scientist to connect the obvious dots here?

Whoever sent the Anthrax laden letters wanted them to incriminate Muslim expremists. Apparently they intended terror as the result. Why would a microbiologist worling with Anthrax want to do such a thing?

Here is my theory.

1. Bush wanted war with Iraq, that is no secret, and in a growing number of tell all books former administration officials show a good number of incodents where his intent was clear and how 9/11 became a good excuse to do it.

2. Letters that crudely implicate Islamic terrorists and contain weaponized Anthrax suddenly show up at the National Enquirer, government offices and major new outlets.

3. Someone in the government close to the investigation feeds a false story to ABC news about bentonite and the Iraq connection to the attack.

4. Bush gets his war. Saddam has no Anthrax operation otherwise he would have used it on the invading troops.

5. Meanwhile questions still linger and the public wants someone to blame for the attacks. Conveninetly the DOJ leaks Dr. Hatfill's name. The press drops the issue.

6. Dr. Hatfill is paid off to stay quiet. He most likely has nothing to do with the attack and was by all counts a scapegoat.

7. Bruce Ivins, another "Person of Interest" is found dead of an apparent suicide. How convenient! Perhaps the only other person who could answer the questions of who and why the attacks took place turns up dead.

OK Rocket Scientists, start connecting the dots. When they lead you to the door to Dick Cheney's office, call me. Of course that is unless you decide to committ suicide.

Obama Confronts McCain's Negative Ad

On July 31st, 2008, Barack Obama returned to Cedar Rapids to hold a town hall meeting.

McCain Sells Out To Big Oil - $881,450!

As soon as McCain reversed his decision about offshore drilling, his campaign coffers have swollen. A report by Campaign Money Watch states:

In Texas alone, June oil and gas-connected donations to McCain’s Victory ’08 Fund, his hybrid fund raising venture with the RNC and state committees, reached $1,214,100.

Of that total, $881,450, or 73 percent, came after June 15. McCain announced his position in favor of offshore drilling on June 16.

And you wonder why McCain flip flopped on offshore drilling? Once again, McCain is Bush 3!

McCain's Tactics Called A "Gimmick"

Exxon Obscene Profits Again!

Big surprise! Exxon-Mobil profits were up 14 percent last quarter beating its previous record. Net income rose to $11.68 billion from $10.26 billion last year. I am sure it piut smiles on the faces of lots of investors.

The down side is record gas prices are hitting us common folk in the pocketbook hard. $4.00 a gallon gas has driven up food costs transportation costs and just about every aspect of American life. But don't take it so hard, your sacrifice is helping put caviar on the tables of Exxon investors and management. See, it's a win-win situation!

Pete Sessions G-String Fundraiser Draws Flack

Everyone's favorite "family values" candidate, Pete Sessions (R-TX) seems to have a bit of a problem. Here's the story.

Pete Sessions has a little Political Action Committee that funds the campaigns of Republicans, in fact in the last three years his PAC has raised more than a million dollars and given away around $800,000. It's a pretty efficient PAC as those things go.

Part of his fund raising activities include a few parties. No problem there, everyone has gone to a political fundraiser and dined on rubber chicken while being asked to write checks. Now comes the fun part.

As one of his fund riasers, Sessions rented a strip club in Las Vegas, Ivan Kane's Forty Deuce. The event apparently was well attended and featured the clubs standard show with lots of strippers and lots of flesh. Sounds like a fun time to me, but to a "family values" kind of guy like Sessions?

Well word of that little bacchanal got out via the radio show "Marketplace" and now Sessions supporters are seriously questioning Pete's street cred as a moral upstanding fellow. In fact the kerfuffle has become so vigorus that Sessions has had to defend himself numerous times.

When asked about the club on radio, Sessions stumbled. "You know, I've never seen that. It is what I would call a burlesque show where there's a woman who comes out and has a dress on... Uh, she never get's naked. There's no nudity, there's no nudity in there."

Oh come on Pete, if there was no nudity and the women never took off their clothes it would be fashion show not a strip show!

Feel free to visit the clubs web site and decide for yourself.