GOP Vixen

Iran Pokes

In case you have not been paying attention to my favorite Iranian rock group, Mahmoud and the Mullahs, it looks like things are really starting to percolate. Iran is trying to alarm the U.S. by claiming it has launched a rocket into space. The U.S. puts as much credibility in Iran’s space shot as it put in the herbal AIDS cure Iran announced last month. Iran also thought it wise to give Dr. Majid Goudarzi, everyone’s favorite holocaust denier, airtime on Iranian TV to tell the world that Jews are "genetically bloodthirsty and criminal". It’s nice to know they are only looking for peace.

While Iran acts as wacky as ever, the U.S. has agreed to sit at the same table with Iran and talk about Iraq while our military is thumping Iranians inside Iraq. At the same time, the U.S. is doing its best to apply economic pressure in spite of the weasely U.N. Don’t let any talk of the U.S. playing nice by sitting at the same table with Iran fool you. The Bush administration has been putting the screws to Mahmoud and the Mullahs and they are really feeling the heat.

Iranian folks are getting impatient with President Ahmadinejad as Iran faces double digit inflation, unemployment, and declining exports. Ahmadinejad is in trouble and he may want nothing more than a U.S. attack as an excuse to stay in power. So expect Iran to act increasingly erratic to try to provoke a conflict with the U.S. Expect the U.S. to keep up the heat. The real question is what will the Iranian people do?

Oscar ruminations

Well, it's not as if I hadn't expected some political bias in Sunday's ceremonies, but they sure laid it on thick.  Aside from always introducing Mr. Global Warming as "Vice President Al Gore", there was that obnoxious teaser between DiCaprio and Gore over whether he would run.  And the lame "America voted for Gore, but he still lost" joke in the opening monologue.

I'll be honest- while I may loathe the man, I'm not all that scared.  After all, he has proven that he can lose,  even to someone like Dukakis in '88.  I just don't want to sit through another manufactured "voting scandal".

Ellen DeGeneres was fairly enjoyable, and seemed to be in her element.  As far as the winners go, I'm glad to see Pan's Labyrinth got some lovin', and that Little Miss Sunshine picked up a couple of awards, and take no issue with Melissa Etheridge's win for Best Song, even if it came from that movie.

I will however say that Happy Feet was a kid's movie that turned into propaganda ("Watch the cute penguins sing!  Watch the cute penguins dance!  Watch the cute penguins starve because of global warming and over-fishing, get captured and placed in captivity and return home so that they can dance with the aliens in the orange suits so that everything can be okay again"), and the other two nominees didn't strike my fancy.

As for who/what I think should have won and didn't... it doesn't really matter.  While the awards can drum up interest in a movie and for the people who put it together, winning or losing doesn't change how good the performances and work were.  The ultimate award doesn't come from an academy of elites, but from the box office receipts generated by the movie-going public.

At least Shut Up and Sing didn't win Picture of the Year or anything.

Back in action

Well, it's been a while since I posted here, but time to get back in the swing of things.

One just once, but twice, my computer went nuts as I was writing my review for Because I Said So, which I have taken as a sign that Diane Keaton sold her soul to Satan himself to get the grosses up on that steaming pile.   While I enjoyed the "cultural cliche" reference to Annie Hall ( a much better Keaton film), and chuckled at Ma Keaton getting mounted by small Chinese masseuse, the rest of the movie was horrid.  Low points included a lame furniture moving scene, the lack of chemistry between Keaton and Stephen Collins as they were "falling for each other", and Ma Keaton asking her youngest daughter about orgasms.  Don't see it.  Because I said so.

Much better was Amazing Grace, a film about the origins of the much beloved song and its connection to the prohibition of slavery in England.  Watching the movie, I was reminded of a point made by Laura Ingraham in the excellent Shut Up and Sing:  that despite the wailings of the "elite", the greatest threats to human rights are those that diametrically oppose Christian teachings, an evil epitomized by the atheist, Communist dictatorships of the 20th century.

The only thing I disliked about the movie was the dearth of bagpipes, if only they could have been featured in the music more prominently.  And if you're having a hard time placing the man who played William Wilberforce, Ioan Gruffudd is better known from his work as Reed Richards in the Fantastic Four movie from 2005, and this upcoming summer.

Imperiled bloggers best hope for free speech in Arab world

Check out my Los Angeles Daily News column today on the madness of restricted speech in the Arab world and the Egyptian blogger imprisoned last week:

"We've learned all too well by now that many parts of the globe won't tolerate any perceived insult to Islam, however unintentional.

Invite cartoonists to draw Muhammad, as Danish newspaper Jyllands-Posten did in 2005, or be one of the dozens of other publications that reprinted the caricatures in solidarity with Jyllands-Posten, and watch the death threats pour in and lethal rioting start as some Muslim organizations try to get the government to levy criminal charges.

A year later, all Pope Benedict XVI had to do to raise ire was quote a 14th-century Byzantine emperor who decried Muhammad's 'command to spread by the sword the faith he preached.' Ironically, the subsequent outrage included firebombing of churches, calls by the Islamic state body in Turkey to arrest the pope on charges of insulting Islam, calls for the execution of the pontiff and the murder of a nun in Somalia.

And even when Comedy Central's 'South Park' tried to innocuously feature Muhammad in a scene mocking 'Family Guy,' parent company Viacom demanded the image be censored. Speaking at the Television Critics Association summer press tour last July, Comedy Central president Doug Herzog said, 'I think history might show we overreacted, but we're willing to live like that."    

I would hope none of us are willing to live like that, yielding to intimidation and bending to censorship.    

But unfortunately, the free-speech-minded in Arab nations know full well what it's like to live like that. And some pay a hefty price.

Back during the Muhammad cartoons controversy, Egyptian Foreign Minister Aboul Gheit spearheaded the country's mediation role, urging Danish Prime Minister Anders Fogh Rasmussen to not prosecute Jyllands-Posten but issue 'an official Danish statement underlining the need for and the obligation of respecting all religions.'

When the religious controversy happened in their own nation, though, the Egyptians were more than happy to prosecute, showing little respect for a secularist who voiced disagreement with tenets of the Islamic society. ..."

Read the whole thing!

Also, I just fired off a letter to Egyptian Ambassador to the U.S. Nabil Fahmy requesting the release and pardon of blogger Kareem Amer. Read the full (hopefully slightly eloquent) text here.

The United Nations sows love and respect wherever it goes

There might have been a smidge of sarcasm in that headline. I stumbled across this on the blog of Sohrab Kabuli, a 23-year-old who blogs from Kabul under the name Afghan Lord:

"This winter, three children with their mothers died from exposure, who were lying down in front of a giant building in which the bottom contained the Cinema Pamir, a place which shows Indian Bollywood films.

Not very far away are UN offices and other international NGOs who drive by in their modern luxury cars every day."

It's nice to know that the U.N. sits on its ass in hotspots just as much as they do at Turtle Bay! And flaunts wealth to natives who have to pick through the garbage. Remember, this is an ordinary Afghan's observation. And it's beyond disturbing.

James Cameron finds Jesus

Or so his paycheck from the Discovery Network says. In a documentary set to air Sunday, the "Titanic" "king of the world" attempts to show that the King of Kings -- in true "DaVinci Code" conspiracy-theory style -- hooked up with Mary Magdalene and had a kid and didn't rise from the dead and etc., etc. Never mind what the archaeologist who found the tomb in 1980 says:

"In Jerusalem, the Israeli archeologist who also carried out excavations at the tomb on behalf of the Israel Antiquities Authority disputed the documentary's conclusions.

The archeologist, Amos Kloner, said the 2,000-year-old cave contained coffins belonging to a Jewish family whose names were similar to those of Jesus and his relatives.

'I can say positively that I don't accept the identification (as) ... belonging to the family of Jesus in Jerusalem,' Kloner told Reuters. 'I don't accept that the family of Miriam and Yosef (Mary and Joseph), the parents of Jesus, had a family tomb in Jerusalem.'

'They were a very poor family. They resided in Nazareth, they came to Bethlehem in order to have the birth done there -- so I don't accept it, not historically, not archeologically,' said Kloner, a professor in the Department of Land of Israel Studies and Archeology at Bar-Ilan University near Tel Aviv. ..."

My theory? I believe Cameron will have egg in his face when it is proven, like in "Life of Brian," that the tomb belongs to the guy born in the stable next to Jesus.

Live Oscar blogging!

As we're just minutes away from the Oscars, under a dark and stormy sky in Los Angeles, we shall begin the live stream of Academy Awards observations! And we're still wondering whether Al Gore will announce running for president tonight, and if he does I've predicted that I will never stop laughing. Never.

5:11 PST: Penelope Cruz has a great dress. And she's less one loopy Tom Cruise, so she's already a winner, dammit!

5:34 p.m.: Hey Seattle Times readers, take a break from writing me hate mail (re Iran column) and take the time to watch the Academy Awards! Your man Al is probably going to win AND grandstand on global warming in ONE SHOT!

5:43 p.m.: When Ellen brought out the gospel choir so much of the audience was confused, as if thinking "Is this like a church thing or something?"

5:48 p.m.: So, will Anna Nicole Smith be featured in the roll call of dead people later because she acted in "The Naked Gun 33 1/3"?

5:54 p.m.: The song of Will Ferrell (with Art Garfunkel wig) and Jack Black was pretty funny, but I liked John C. Reilly jumping out of the audience.

5:57 p.m.: ROFL -- from Dirty Harry's live Oscar blogging over at Libertas: "I know I promised to live-blog but I did not sign up for this. Taking the hit’s one thing. This is Abu-Ghraib without the cute little chick pointing at my privates."

6:06 p.m.: I've decided I'll put up with a political rant from Gore as long as Marky Mark gets onstage and drops trou.

6:20 p.m.: Alan Arkin wins Best Supporting Actor! Yay!! He was awesome as Grandpa in "Little Miss Sunshine." Abigail Breslin looks adorable (and actually like a kid, in this Dakota Fanning world...)

6:22 p.m.: How come Martin Scorsese's eyebrows haven't gone gray but the rest of his hair has?

6:28 p.m.: James Taylor should be illegal. ZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ......

6:30 p.m.: Melissa Ethridge and Al Gore movie: what a pair!

6:32 p.m.: Al Gore is applauding himself. And waxing about climate change with Prius driver Leo DiCaprio. Why does Hollywood find this drip so stimulating? Al's being super serial.

6:49 p.m.: Adapted screenplay -- Borat got robbed, I tell you, ROBBED!! "Departed" guy looks like he woke up in the alley. What is it with screenwriters feeling they have to live up to the scruffy, unkempt stereotype?

6:50 p.m.: Peter O'Toole looks so old. Remember how hot he looked in those white robes in "Lawrence"?

7:00 p.m.: If someone does a period movie, they should just be handed the Costume Design Oscar, right? They always win, even if the movie was crap!

7:18 p.m.: Is anyone else bored? This interpretive dance is reminding me of the awful year that "Dances With Wolves" was nominated and dancers threw fur over their backs and crawled across the stage (buffalo).

7:24 p.m.: You know, I was just thinking amwodjfo isrnvea;ero inbpee iq3-4'9bq3opiidaofb ae0

Sorry, fell asleep on the keyboard there...

7:31 p.m.: Jennifer Hudson just won Best Supporting Actress. "Look what God can do!" she says to significantly less applause than DiCaprio saying "Look what Al Gore can do!" (By the way, she's officially kicked the butts of every other "American Idol" ex-finalist.) You go, girl!

(Dirty Harry notes that Hudson blew off George Clooney walking backstage! He's right -- she didn't stop to fawn. Hah!)

7:39 p.m.: Why do they stick the documentary short subject winners in the back corner of the Kodak and roll out the place of honor of Gore? Pretty elitist, don'tcha think?

7:42 p.m.: It's the uber-lefty Best Documentary category! Only good part was the Seinfeld monologue to open it. Guess who won? Any guesses? Guess who got a standing-O from the Hollywood patsies? Any guesses? Everybody get down on their knees and kiss Gore's...

7:48 p.m.: Clint Eastwood is sounding really confused.

7:53 p.m.: Celine Dion -- gag me with a pica pole!!

7:58 p.m.: This speech in Italian is the most sense anyone has made all night.

8:11 p.m.: "Little Miss Sunshine" wins best original screenplay! Yay! A good night for independent film.

8:26 p.m.: Ugh. Ethridge won best song for the Al Gore rant. "Mostly, I have to get down on my knees and kiss Manbearpig Gore's ..."

8:36 p.m.: Another Dirty Harry gem:  "Jennifer Hudson needs to wail a lyric like, 'Got me an Oscar! Skinny ho next to me don’t! She treated me like crap on the set! Wouldn’t let me in her trailer! Made pig noises at the craft services table! Who’s laughing now you weave wearing no Oscar hoochie mama?'”

8:48 p.m.: Roll call of dead people punctuated by popularity applause. Anna Nicole's "Naked Gun" role didn't earn her a spot.

8:51 p.m.: Helen Mirren won. Wow. What a surprise. And she thanked the queen. Monarchs are acceptable in Hollywood. If she'd thanked Bush, she woulda got run out on a rail.

9:03 p.m.: Forest Whitaker deservingly wins -- and also thanks God! Hollywood's gonna have a heart attack!

9:05 p.m.: Scorsese in da house!! Always the bridesmaid, finally the bride!

9:09 p.m.: "The Departed" wins Best Picture, a first for a Scorcese pic. He's arrived! Now get Marky Mark up on that stage. With or without the Funky Bunch.

9:29 p.m.: Wait a minute... Lucas is at least a few inches shorter than me -- I was standing next to him at a Writers Guild reception once. Lucas, Spielberg, Coppola and Scorsese were all about the same height. Are all directors short?

Vil-sacked

After being viciously ignored for weeks, Tom Vilsack finally succumbed to the neglect and dropped out of the race for President. This left many poll watchers confused and asking the obvious question “Tom who?”

Blair gets all wimpy on Iran

The Times of London has a piece today about Mahmoud Ahmadinejad whining that we're big "bullies," but also about Tony Blair's stance on the rogue regime in the face of the Security Council potentially taking more action (not holding our breaths) against Mullah Central:

"... There are emerging differences on how to tackle Iran, with divisions opening up inside the US Administration and between America and Britain. Tony Blair stated publicly this week that a military attack on Iran would be wrong and that diplomacy was the 'only way' to get a sensible solution. ...

There is growing unease in Washington over recent signs of Britain breaking ranks with President Bush. Nile Gardiner, of the conservative think-tank Heritage Foundation, said that Mr Blair’s comments were 'sending the wrong signals' to Tehran 'at a critical time and represented a significant weakening of his position'.

He suggested that the Prime Minister was no longer the dependable ally, and that it may be Gordon Brown who was beginning to 'call the shots' in foreign policy. Downing Street denied yesterday that there was any 'internal political agenda' behind Mr Blair’s comments on Iran or his decision this week to begin withdrawing troops from Iraq — the timing of which is known to have displeased the White House.

Other leading conservative voices in Washington, such as Danielle Pletka, of the American Enterprise Institute, said that it was dangerous to 'overinterpret' recent events.

'Tony Blair has put a huge amount into this relationship and it has been very difficult for him. When he pulls a few troops home, is that a slap in the face for us? Or is it just good sense?' she asked."

In my opinion, Blair is about as lame as a lame-duck leader could be. He's in "what do I care?" mode, having stated last fall that he'll step down by September. But also in my opinion, the British troop withdrawal has only become a big deal because anti-war forces want to seize on anything as a defeat for President Bush as Congress schemes about ways to undermine the war effort. They can cry "Look, our allies are abandoning us!" -- but the reality is more like, the UK has scaled back from 40,000 originally to 9,000 two years ago to 7,100 presently and the newest troop reduction would take their commitment down to 5,500. Where was the press tizzy when the other tens of thousands of British soldiers got their tickets home? Strategically, this move means nada; politically, timing is everything.

On Iran, though, Blair just needs to simmer down. Dissension is fine, but the U.S.'s main ally publicly defending Iran is Ahmadinejad's wet dream. Dissenting is one thing; providing fodder for the enemy is another. Blair may think a campfire kumbaya is the "only way" to arrive at a sensible resolution with Iran, but we're not exactly dealing with a sensible regime.

Back to the Times story, though: On the online reader comments, I must give mad props to this fool who said, "America needs to stop the hippocrassy." Is that some manner of crass plant-eating African mammal? Bad spelling aside, commenter "Ham" is merely masquerading as a dissenting Californian -- he spelled his supposed city of origin, San Rafael, wrong. And since he spelled much of his English wrong but correctly spelled "Ahmadinejad" -- the name most Americans can't spell -- I smell a trolling Iranian regime or sympathizer trying to make the U.S. look bad. Nice try, mullah troll!

No Obama-rama

In case you missed it, the Democrats had their first gathering of Presidential wannabes in Nevada without rock star Obama. Without Obama, it was like a Beatles reunion without McCartney so the press did not give this snooze fest much coverage.

 

The event was hosted by a union, so domestic issues and promises of free health care for all was the order of the day. While foreign policy was not discussed much, the crowd was very receptive to the idea of immediate abject defeat and a humiliating withdrawal from Iraq. Almost every candidate promised a swift decisive defeat for American forces if elected. Of course, the unions might support the war in Iraq if the terrorist decide to unionize. I understand the terrorist would like a few more virgins and ergonomically correct bomb triggers.