Two very important people in very different spheres of life died today.

Former Sen. Eugene "Clean Gene" McCarthy died in his sleep in a Georgetown assisted living home.

Eugene McCarthy was the 1968 version of Howard Dean. McCarthy challenged Lyndon Johnson in the 1968 presidential primary race with an anti-war message that resonated so strongly (to the tune of a 42% vote share in the New Hampshire primary) that Johnson ended up withdrawing from the race. After Robert Kennedy, McCarthy's rival who entered the race later on, was assassinated, a party convention full of hacks nominated Hubert Humphrey -- a decent man tainted by his association with the Johnson war escalation -- who was then defeated by Richard Nixon.

The 2004 race resembled 1968 so strongly it was eerie: An anti-war insurgent candidacy took the nation by storm, to the point that the party regulars decided to take the reins and nominate one of their own -- thus exciting no one, and resulting in the election of a lunatic. You'd think the party would have learned.

For many of who were of draft age then, McCarthy was the first political candidate they could see themselves supporting. Quiet and reserved, he galvanized a generation.

McCarthy was always uncategorizable, especially after his failed 1992 candidacy. One always had the sense that he stood for what was right, even if it was at odds with the party.

It's hard to say that McCarthy will be missed, as he's been out of the public eye for a long time -- but his passing closes the door on the first time in my lifetime that a maverick candidate made us believe that we could make a difference.

Another maverick in a completely different sphere also died today.

Richard Pryor died early this morning.

Pryor may have idolized Bill Cosby, but his true comedic spiritual father was Lenny Bruce in the way he brought his personal pain and his experience as a black man into his comedy. Richard Pryor: Live and In Concert (1979) and Richard Pryor Live on the Sunset Strip (1982) are still two of the funniest stand-up routines ever committed to film.

While much of Pryor's stand-up act dealt with being black in America in the 20th century, his appeal transcended race. For in his reflections on his own self-destructiveness, he made us all look into ourselves. It was Pryor, more so even than his forefather in shock-comedy that changed the nature of stand-up from the kind of Borscht-belt, Jewish dominated arena that had been prevalent prior (no pun intended) to Richard Pryor's departure from the trite performances on television variety shows that characterized his early career to something new, edgy, and different. To say that Pryor could have been Pryor without the recreational self-indulgence that made much of his life hell is like saying that Jimi Hendrix could have done what he did without hallucinogens. There's nothing new in the artist sacrificing himself for his art, and Pryor is perhaps the foremost example of this fact in the art of standup.

Every standup comic working today owes his career to Richard Pryor; from Robin Williams to Lewis Black to Marc Maron. It's somehow fitting that Richard Pryor should leave us on the weekend before Morning Sedition leaves the airwaves for good.

Don McLean sang of the plane crash that killed Buddy Holly as "the day the music died." Today may very well be the day that laughter died.

OK, sure, it's Capitol Hill Blue again, but consider George W. Bush's remarks about how he'd rather be a dictator, and consider also his penchant for thinking "l'état, c'est moi" before dismissing it out of hand:

Last month, Republican Congressional leaders filed into the Oval Office to meet with President George W. Bush and talk about renewing the controversial USA Patriot Act.

Several provisions of the act, passed in the shell shocked period immediately following the 9/11 terrorist attacks, caused enough anger that liberal groups like the American Civil Liberties Union had joined forces with prominent conservatives like Phyllis Schlafly and Bob Barr to oppose renewal.

GOP leaders told Bush that his hardcore push to renew the more onerous provisions of the act could further alienate conservatives still mad at the President from his botched attempt to nominate White House Counsel Harriet Miers to the Supreme Court.

“I don’t give a goddamn,” Bush retorted. “I’m the President and the Commander-in-Chief. Do it my way.”

“Mr. President,” one aide in the meeting said. “There is a valid case that the provisions in this law undermine the Constitution.”

“Stop throwing the Constitution in my face,” Bush screamed back. “It’s just a goddamned piece of paper!”

I’ve talked to three people present for the meeting that day and they all confirm that the President of the United States called the Constitution “a goddamned piece of paper.”

Mr. President, you swore on the Bible you pretend to hold so dear to uphold and defend the Constitution of the United States. If you think it's just a "goddamned piece of paper", then perhaps you ought to step down. If not, then it's time to think about impeachment for violation of your oath of office -- a violation far more sever than accepting a sexual favor from a woman of legal age.

(hat tip: "Radical Russ" at Pam's House Blend)

Because of cases like that of one Cory Maye.

Jazz has the details of this travesty of justice.

Think about this the next time you think having a gun in your bedroom to protect yourself against intruders is a good idea.

One Good Move has the video from Stephen Colbert on the War on Christmas. Absolutely hilarious...or it would be, if it weren't how the Jeebofascists actually think.

Colbert's show started off slow, but he's really hitting his stride now. If you haven't seen it yet, check it out.

Hey, Dalton. They're called condoms. You don't want to be a parent? Use them. You don't trust the woman you're fucking not to try to trap you into parenthood? Then why are you fucking her? And if you have to use such colossally bad judgment, use a condom. Or get a vasectomy.

Them's the choices, pal.

Fortunately it seems to be no longer my issue -- the hotflashes and thickening middle attest to that. But if I had become pregnant and didn't want to be, I would have discussed it with Mr. Brilliant because we have a relationship of mutual respect.

If Dalton Conley is that concerned about not being consulted, or of being somehow trapped into paying child support, perhaps he ought to examine why he insists on sticking his dick into women he can't trust.

Like here:

The Jewish Grinch who stole Christmas

Dec 8, 2005
by Burt Prelutsky

Although it seems a long time ago, it really wasn’t, that people who came here from other places made every attempt to fit in. Assimilation wasn’t a threat to anyone; it was what the Statue of Liberty represented. E pluribus unum, one out of many, was our motto. The world’s melting pot was our nickname. It didn’t mean that any group of people had to check their customs, culture or cuisine, at the door. It did mean that they, and especially their children, learned English, and that they learned to live and let live.

That has changed, you may have noticed. And I blame my fellow Jews. When it comes to pushing the multicultural, anti-Christian, agenda, you find Jewish judges, Jewish journalists, and the ACLU, at the forefront.


Being Jewish, I should report, Christmas was never celebrated by my family. But what was there not to like about the holiday? To begin with, it provided a welcome two week break from school. The decorated trees were nice, the lights were beautiful, “It’s a Wonderful Life” was a great movie, and some of the best Christmas songs were even written by Jews.

But the dirty little secret in America is that anti-Semitism is no longer a problem in society; it’s been replaced by a rampant anti-Christianity. For example, the hatred spewed towards George W. Bush has far less to do with his policies than it does with his religion. The Jews voice no concern when a Bill Clinton or a John Kerry makes a big production out of showing up at black Baptist churches or posing with Rev. Jesse Jackson because they understand that’s just politics. They only object to politicians attending church for religious reasons.

This is 100% pure virgin unadulterated horseshit.

There is no war on Christmas, on the part of Jews or anyone else, except maybe Bill O'Reilly, who is shamelessly fanning the flames of bigotry in a quest for ratings.

Jews have lived in this country for over 100 years, and not only is Christmas still celebrated, both as a culture and religious holiday, but Christians still go to church on Sundays and holidays (well, maybe not in the case of the megachurches, many of which are closing on Christmas this year), and no one is telling them not to believe that a Jew got nailed to a tree 2000 years ago so that Bill O'Reilly could write pornographic novels and sexually harass a staffer and still get a free pass to heaven.

If Christmas has been outlawed this year, you couldn't prove it by me. My town has its Christmas tree lit, the next town over has its decorations up, I understand that there's a radio station in New York that's all Christmas music until Christmas, and you can't drive on Route 4 in Paramus anymore until January 2.

I'll tell you all a secret: No one gave a rat's ass about this until the Christofascist Zombie Brigade decided that this is a Christian nation and that all must worship Jesus or else be burned at the stake as a traitor to God, America, the Flag, and all that's holy.

Most American Jews recognize, and are used to, the relentless assault of Christmas we have to endure every year. And when it was just the trees, the greenery, even the singing of "O Come All Ye Faithful" (which still sounds to me like a paean to Orgasm Within Marriage Only), most of us, other than the most observant and the professional malcontents, just went along because after all, it's just not that big a deal.

But now it IS a big deal. It's a big deal because the American Taliban has decided that its own particular flavor of Christianity is to be the law of the land, to be practiced everywhere in the public square -- from town hall meetings (no pun intended) to the public schools, where all nonbelieving children are to be proseletyzed by their classmates until they beg for mercy.

Whether these people like it or not, we are a pluralistic society. We are a society of many colors, backgrounds, religions, and beliefs. We are NOT a Christian nation, and we never have been. And the American Taliban had better fucking well get used to that fact.

Bert Prelutsky may be trying to get invited to the right parties by blaming the Jews for the so-called "war on Christmas". But if we allow the American Taliban to take over, he's going to be called on to convert or die just like the rest of us.

Talk about "useful idiots."

(hat tip: Steve Gilliard)

It's to be expected that gay bloggers are all over the Ford Motor Company's capitulation to the Christofascist Zombie Brigade in pulling ads from gay publications. But why should straight people, who don't read these publications, even care? They're not targeting us, are they?

Oh, yes they are.

Aside from the fact that I don't put up with people who diss my friends, there's the fact that the American Family Association and the many other groups of that ilk are gunning for ALL of us. And they are fighting us on two fronts -- they're fighting us in local, state, and the federal government, and they're fighting us in the boardrooms of America.

Dan Savage explains:

Gay or straight, you should at least pick up the phone and let local Ford dealers know that you won't even consider buying a Ford after this. Why should straight people care? Because the same AFA fucks that have successfully intimidated Ford on the gay issue are also attacking straight rights—they’re the same assholes who have successfully intimidated retailers like Target into denying women access to morning-after pills. They’re the same assholes trying to convince the Feds not to release a vaccine for two strains of HPV , the virus that can cause cervical cancer in women. The HPV vaccine—already tested and 100% effective!—could save thousands of women’s lives every year. The AFA is fighting it.

It's no longer a question of just electing progressive Democrats to Congress. It's no longer even a question of 2008. These people must be stopped, and they must be stopped now. Because if they aren't stopped, if they succeed in forcing companies to accept their terms or be subject to boycotts, sooner or later you'll have to sign loyalty oaths to Jesus just to get a job.

Two can play this game. Boycott companies who capitulate to these American Taliban lunatics, and write to them explaining why you refuse to do business with them. If the people in the boardrooms think they can spit on us and we won't boycott, make them think twice.

One can only hope.

(hat tip: Americablog)

Anyone who's feeling sad on this 25th anniversary of the murder of John Lennon might not want to read further.

Nostalgia for Lennon has been on the rise the last few weeks, with this milestone anniversary approaching. I suppose that any time a high-profile individual is murdered, this to be expected. But I think that if you're crying today over John Lennon, 25 years on, you need to look at exactly what you're crying about. I suspect it has less to do with grief than more to do with the recognition that those 25 years mean you are no longer young, as you were 25 years ago. And if you ARE still grieving for John Lennon, unless you knew him personally, may I suggest that perhaps it's time to get some help?

Perhaps I'm the wrong person to write about Lennon today, because John Lennon was never my Beatle of Choice. As a pre-adolescent in the mid-1960's, you could tell what kind of person a girl was by which Beatle she liked. The philosophical girls were George girls. The geeky girls were Ringo girls. The angry politicos-to-be were John girls. Me? I was all of the above, but I wanted to fit in, so I was a Paul girl -- Paul McCartney, he of the cute smile and the big round eyes and the puppyish demeanor -- which he retains to this day, even now that he is, as Anna Quindlen once dubbed him, the World's Oldest Living Cute boy.

I've always believed that Lennon-McCartney was greater than the sum of its parts. If you look at Paul McCartney's post-Beatles career, it's really quite undistinguished. And if you look at John Lennon's post-Beatles career, well, it's some of the most pretentious, self-important, self-indulgent horseshit ever recorded by someone not named "Patti Smith." John Lennon was the neurotic one, the one with the Oedipal complex, who only began working out his neurosis after he found the mother he'd missed so desperately in Yoko Ono -- and people paid for the privilege of listening.

McCartney's musical roots seem to come from the Edwardian dance hall. At best, he's a modern-day Tin Pan Alley tunesmith. Lennon's musical influence is the blues -- the mournful-but-angry music of emotional catharsis. Each of them served to tamp down the worst musical instincts of the other, and together they wrote some of the most durable songs of the late 20th century. Separately, much of their work is average at best.

As an activist, Lennon was only a performance artist. If you look at today's musical activists -- Willie Nelson putting together Farm Aid, or Bono working directly with the World Bank, John Lennon's lecturing to others while hardly leaving the house seems like the worst kind of posturing -- right up there with the preposterously wealthy Sting, with his six kids leaving their footprints on the planet, singing songs that tell us to "learn to be happy with less". Lennon wasn't an activist, he was an armchair quarterback. Writing the songs that make the whole world march doesn't make you a leader. Just because you sing the anthems may make you an inspiration -- but it doesn't make you a leader.

It's ironic that the song you're going to hear most today is Imagine -- the song for which Lennon is best remembered, and one of the least cynical efforts by this most cynical of artists.

The murder in cold blood of a person in front of his wife and child is appalling no matter when it occurs. And the image of John Lennon bleeding to death in a police car is sickening to this day. 25 years ago people grieved for the loss of the dream that someday the Beatles might reunite and once again create the magic they did in their heyday. Some grieved for a man whose work resonated with them. And we all were horrified that life could be so random -- even for John Lennon.

25 years later, most of us who remember that day can no longer delude ourselves that we're still young. And in all the remembrances of John Lennon today, what few people will admit is that it's no longer John Lennon for whom we grieve, it's the loss of that youth -- the only thing we know how to be -- that we mourn.

HR550 is more important than ever as the 2006 midterm elections grow closer.

AP is reporting that state officials are completely stymied by the challenge of trying to make voting machines WHICH WERE BUILT TO BE HACKABLE AND UNSECURED secure, in advance of the January 1, 2006 deadline for complying with reliability standards:

Across the country, officials are trying multiple methods to ensure that touch-screen voting machines can record and count votes without falling prey to software bugs, hackers, malicious insiders or other ills.

These are not theoretical problems - in some states they have led to lost or miscounted votes.

One of the biggest concerns - the frequent inability of computerized ballots to produce a written receipt of a vote - has been addressed or is being tackled in most states.

An October report from the Government Accountability Office predicted that steps to improve the reliability of electronic voting "are unlikely to have a significant effect" in the 2006 off-year elections, partly because certification procedures remain a work in progress.

"There's not a lot of precedents in dealing with these electronic systems, so people are slowly figuring out the best way to do this," said Thad E. Hall, a political scientist at the University of Utah and co-author of "Point, Click, and Vote: The Future of Internet Voting."

In North Carolina, more stringent requirements - which include placing the machines' software code in escrow for examination in case of a problem - have led one supplier, Diebold Inc., to say it will withdraw from the state, where about 20 counties use Diebold voting machines.

A different type of showdown is brewing in California, where Secretary of State Bruce McPherson says he might force makers of the machines to prove their systems can withstand attacks from a hacker. One such test on a Diebold system - Diebold machines were blamed for voting disruptions in a 2004 California primary - is planned.

The state has been negotiating details with Harri Hursti, a security expert from Finland who uncovered severe flaws in a Diebold system used in Leon County, Fla. (He demonstrated how vote results could be changed, then made screens flash "Are we having fun yet?")

Diebold isn't the only culprit, but Diebold IS the only company whose CEO promised to deliver a state's electoral votes to a particular candidate in the 2004 elections. That candidate was NOT John Kerry.

Much digging has been done into Diebold's machines. Brad Friedman has been on the case with this for some time, and today Raw Story interviews Friedman's source, a whistleblower within the company who goes by the pseudonym "Dieb Throat", who reveals that Diebold has absolutely no interest in complying with measures designed to make voting accurate and secure (emphases mine):

“I’ve absolutely had it with the dishonesty,” the insider told RAW STORY. Blasting Wally O’Dell, the current president of Diebold, the whistleblower went on to explain behind-the-scenes tactics of the company and its officers.

“There’s a lot of pressure in the corporation to make the numbers: `We don’t tell you how to do it, but do it.’ [O’Dell is] probably the number one culprit putting pressure on people,” the source said.

Diebold spokesman David Bear rebuts the charges. “Diebold has a sterling reputation in the industry," Bear said. "It’s a 144-year-old company and is considered one of the best companies in the industry."

Previous revelations from the whistleblower have included evidence that Diebold’s upper management and top government officials knew of backdoor software in Diebold’s central tabulator before the 2004 election, but ignored urgent warnings—such as a Homeland Security alert posted on the Internet.

“This is a very dangerous precedent that needs to be stopped—that’s the corporate takeover of elections,” the source warned. “The majority of election directors don’t understand the gravity of what they’re dealing with. The bottom line is who is going to tamper with an election? A lot of people could, but they assume that no one will.”

Concerns about Georgia, Ohio elections

The insider harbors suspicions that Diebold may be involved in tampering with elections through its army of employees and independent contractors. The 2002 gubernatorial election in Georgia raised serious red flags, the source said.

“Shortly before the election, ten days to two weeks, we were told that the date in the machine was malfunctioning,” the source recalled. “So we were told 'Apply this patch in a big rush.’” Later, the Diebold insider learned that the patches were never certified by the state of Georgia, as required by law.

“Also, the clock inside the system was not fixed,” said the insider. “It’s legendary how strange the outcome was; they ended up having the first Republican governor in who knows when and also strange outcomes in other races. I can say that the counties I worked in were heavily Democratic and elected a Republican.”

In Georgia’s 2002 Senate race, for example, nearly 60 percent of the state’s electorate by county switched party allegiances between the primaries and the general election.

[snip]

The whistleblower is also skeptical of results from the November 2005 Ohio election, in which 88 percent of voters used touch screens and the outcome on some propositions changed as much as 40 percent from pre-election exit polls.

“Amazing,” the Diebold insider said.

[snip]

“My feeling having been really deep inside the company is that initially Diebold, being a very conservative and Republican company, felt that if they controlled an election company, they could have great influence over the outcome,” the source, a registered independent, said.

“Does that mean fixing elections? Not necessarily, but if your people are in election departments and they are biased toward Republicans, you will have an influence…I think this is what they were buying, the positioning. Obviously screwing with the software would be a homerun—and I do think that was part of their recipe for getting into the election business. But the public got involved and said 'Hey, what’s going on?' That pulled the sheet off what their plan was with these paperless voting machines.”

[snip]

Neither the TSX nor the older TS6 election equipment systems used by Diebold were designed to be retrofitted with paper trails. “The TSX was designed and brought to market after the paper trail issue erupted, yet it was introduced as a paperless system. But the uproar became so great… The public forced Diebold to put printers on their machines.” Adding printers to existing computer hardware together poses challenges.

The TS6 machines can’t be retrofitted with paper at all, leaving 35,000 voters in Maryland and Georgia to rely on paperless, faith-based voting.

Even if the blank paper problem could be solved, there are other serious problems with some TSX equipment. “The system that was offered to San Diego was purely experimental—the TSX and the electronic poll book, the check-in device,” the Diebold insider stated. “Voters couldn’t access the system to vote with the electronic poll book if the batteries died.” The high rate of breakdowns involving access cards for the poll book caused major problems, the source added. “The interesting part about this device is that it had never been used before. That was probably not certified.”

San Diego has since warehoused its TSX system, pending a decision by the state on whether to recertify. San Diego County now uses Diebold optical scanners—but those pose security problems as well.

Conservatives love to scream conspiracy nut at people who point out these problems, which can only mean that they think it's perfectly OK to rig an election, as long as their candidate wins.

The are many of us who do not necessarily believe that Senators such as Saxby Chambliss and Elizabeth Dole legitimately won their seats in 2002. I do not believe that George W. Bush won the popular vote in either the 2000 or 2004 elections -- because of voter intimidation and electronic voting. An elected leader is not well-served by this kind of doubt in his or her legitimacy. If George W. Bush feels beleaguered these days by people like me, he should think about how he won his office. I never liked Reagan, but I knew he had been legitimately elected via a lawful process -- not because of a quid pro quo with a campaign contributor who just happens to run a company that makes voting machines.

The corporatization of politics is ominous. In the last few days we've had the Ford Motor Company, which is seeking a government bailout, cuddle up to the hatemongers in the Christofascist Zombie Brigade, quite possibly in the hopes that making nice with "the base" might change the White House's mind about tax breaks and other incentives to help them emerge from their own managers' bad decisions. Are corporations now going to be enlisted to enact rules and policies that will affect most Americans because the Administration doesn't have the support to enact such policies on a nationwide basis by codifying them in law? And what is the payoff?

NONE of this is partisan. It's not about George W. Bush, though he is the first president since Kennedy to have this kind of doubt about the legitimacy of his election. It's about what we're supposed to stand for as we hold ourselves up as the beacon of freedom and democracy to the world.

Please sign the petition to support HR 550 now, if you haven't already done so. If the corporations have, in fact, bought the government in its entirety, at least let's force the government to admit it.

Ah, the halcyon days of early 1998, when Star Wars fans and Titanic fans pored over box office results like Nicely-Nicely Johnson poring over a racing form. Star Wars fans were zealously guarding THEIR movie's place as #1 box office giant of all time, while Titanic fans were gleefully awaiting the toppling of the Star Wars statue in Geek Square after THEIR movie hit the magic #1 spot. A similar, if less-publicized round took place with each of the three Star Wars prequels.

This weekend's openings of The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe and Brokeback Mountain promise a repeat of that utterly pointless exercise in "mine's bigger" gamesmanship on the part of the many Armies of God hiring school buses to take their minions to the megaplex; providing plenty of fodder for the culture wars: The Armed Defenders of Wal-mart Profits duking it out with the Knights of Interior Decorating and Hair Care Products -- or so the right wing paints it.

The wingnut response to Brokeback Mountain has been relatively muted, its soldiers off doing battle with the dark lords of Hanukkah, Kwanzaa, and Ramadan in an attempt to keep the X-Box of Power from being thrown by some hairy Jewish guy with big feet into the fires of Mount Secular.

But do not be fooled, O my friends, for the battles of these mighty forces will take place -- on Monday morning, when the box office results are in:

There's also more than a slight tinge of boosterism going on here, in the face of "Brokeback" opening against "The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe." [Culture and Family Institute director Robert] Knight links box-office success with moral authority. "You know, that's going to be quite a contrast," he says. "You're going to have a roll-out of a film that's going to be a blockbuster, and it reflects basic Christian values, going up against a limited release of a movie that mocks traditional morality. And I'll betcha I know which one is going to win.

"I think Ang Lee is off his rocker if he thinks he can have the same commercial success with two cowboys instead of a cowboy and a cowgirl, as other movies do."

Spoken like a true bully, don't you think? The Christofascist Zombie Brigade is primed to declare the Victory of the Christian Lion over the the Little Sodomites on the Prairie, equating a $150 million blockbuster with Disney muscle behind it and a 300-screen opening with a small festival flick with a $13 million budget that's opening on five screens.

Yup, that's a mandate, all right...in the delusional Jeebofucknut universe in which these people live.

Me? I'm gonna catch both of them, sooner or later. Maybe the Rapture will take place while the Narnia movie is running. If that happens, I get whatever's in their wallets.

Digby unearths Joe Lieberman's pious bloviatings on the floor of the Senate during the Clinton impeachment, and notes how Joementum has changed his tune now that he smells a job in the Bush Administration coming.

Joe chastised the 60% of Americans who don't like American kids being fed into a meat grinder of a war based on lies: "It's time for Democrats who distrust President Bush to acknowledge he'll be commander-in-chief for three more years. We undermine the president's credibility at our nation's peril."

But when it comes to lies about something Joe Lieberman has probably never gotten from Hadassah, all bets are off:

After much reflection, my feelings of disappointment and anger have not dissipated, except now these feelings have gone beyond my personal dismay to a larger, graver sense of loss for our country, a reckoning of the damage that the president's conduct has done to the proud legacy of his presidency and, ultimately, an accounting of the impact of his actions on our democracy and its moral foundations.

The implications for our country are so serious that I feel a responsibility to my constituents in Connecticut, as well as to my conscience, to voice my concerns forthrightly and publicly. And I can think of no more appropriate place to do that than on this great Senate floor.

[snip]

As Teddy Roosevelt once explained, "My power vanishes into thin air the instant that my fellow citizens, who are straight and honest, cease to believe that I represent them and fight for what is straight and honest. That is all the strength that I have," Roosevelt said.

Sadly, with his deception, the president may have weakened the great power and strength that he possesses, of which President Roosevelt spoke.

I know this is a concern that may of my colleagues share, which is to say that the president has hurt his credibility and therefore perhaps his chances of moving his policy agenda forward.

There's more...

No thanks, Mel, we'll pass:

Mel Gibson, whose The Passion of the Christ drew charges of anti-semitism, is reportedly developing a TV miniseries set against the backdrop of the Holocaust.

The Daily Variety reported yesterday that Gibson's production company is involved in a project to get on screen the real-life love story of Flory A Van Beek, a Dutch Jew whose non-Jewish boyfriend sheltered her from the Nazis.

The report hastened to add that the project was still in its very early stages, and that it was not even certain if Gibson's name would be publicly attached to the finished product. Furthermore, a formal go-ahead was still months away and the series would not be broadcast on the US ABC network until the 2006-07 season at the earliest.

Critics will be sure to point out that Gibson's father, Hutton, has been quoted questioning whether the Holocaust actually happened and asserting that there were more Jews in Europe after the second world war than ever before.
Even though Mel himself told an interviewer in 2004 that some of his best friends "have numbers on their arms" and that the "second world war killed tens of millions of people; some of them were Jews in concentration camps", Holocaust scholars have criticised him for failing to disassociate himself clearly from his father's views.

ABC's senior vice-president for movies for television, Quinn Taylor, has already fired a pre-emptive strike against critics, saying, "I would tell them to shut up and wait to see the movie, and then judge," Taylor told Variety. "I'm not about to rewrite history (with the movie). I'm going to explore an amazing love story that we can all learn from and, hopefully, be inspired by."

Especially the part where the protagonists convert to Catholicism at the end.

(hat tip for the title: Esquire magazine's annual Dubious Achievement Awards.)

The Ford plot thickens:

...the two Ford execs who negotiated the anti-gay secret deal with the gay-hating extremist groups, Ziad Ojakli and David Leitch, are actually former top officials in the Bush White House. And now we find out, below, that one of those same top Bush/Ford officials is also running secret meetings out of Ford's own offices in support of Bush's far-right Supreme Court nominees.

Putting aside the question of who this Ford employee actually works for, Ford or the White House, is anyone seeing a larger pattern here?

Maybe you folks ought to give Mr. Ujakli a call here in DC and let him know you're not amused by Ford having become an adjunct of the Bush White House: 202-962-5400

This all makes me wonder if Administration policy is being directed through corporate boardrooms. In other words, are corporate executive offices being used as a cover for Administration shenanigans? Or are corporations like Ford receiving government favors (such as promises of bailouts) in exchange for furthering the Administration's anti-gay agenda?

Stay tuned. This could get interesting.

The boozy faux-liberal Christopher Hitchens has been the man I've most loved to hate of late, because of his tenacious insistence that the Iraq War is some kind of noble cause.

However, he may be rethinking his bedfellows these days, as evidenced by the following extraordinary exchange on Joe Scarborough's Jeeb-o-rama (emphases mine):

But right now, I want to bring in Christopher Hitchens. He's a writer for “Vanity Fair.” And from Lynchburg, Virginia, let's talk to Mat Staver. He's the president of the Liberty Counsel, which started the Friend or Foe Christmas Campaign.

Christopher, I want to start with you.

I guess whenever these issues come up, my question always is, what is the big deal? If Newport News wants to have a Christmas tree, or Pensacola, Florida, wants to have a manger in front of city hall, who does that harm?

CHRISTOPHER HITCHENS, “VANITY FAIR”: Who does it harm if they call it tree of illumination?

I mean, Christmas wouldn't be Christmas without this argument. And I have to say, I congratulate you on finding a Mr. Sage for a Yuletide touch.

But he is dead wrong in the main thing he said, which is that this is our how our country was founded. As he ought to know, the country was founded on a document that specifically separates church from state.

SCARBOROUGH: What document is that, Christopher?

(CROSSTALK)

HITCHENS: That's the United States Constitution.

SCARBOROUGH: Separates church and state. Where does it say that in the Constitution?

(CROSSTALK)

HITCHENS: Very particularly in its first—very particularly, in its rather brilliantly and beautifully and clearly written First Amendment.

Now, in Lynchburg....

SCARBOROUGH: Is it?

HITCHENS: ... as in Washington, D.C., there are large numbers of public buildings, lavishly financed, usually, in fact, invariably, tax exempt, sometimes even government subsidized by the—what do we call it, faith-based program.

They are called churches. People can go there if they want to have religious ceremony. They can put up hoardings on their land which say it's Jesus' birthday or Christ has risen, if it's Easter, anything like that. You can't stop them. They do it all the time, and they are very welcome.

I would like, however, to be able to go to Union Station and not be told that I am a Christian over the loud speaker all the time, or, indeed, to Wal-Mart or Target or 7/Eleven and not have an incessant one-party state month of permanent Christian music and propaganda. I think that's annoying and offensive, and also...

(CROSSTALK)

SCARBOROUGH: But, Christopher, though, there's a long history...

(CROSSTALK)

SCARBOROUGH: Hold on a second.

(CROSSTALK)

HITCHENS: I promise only one thing. I promise you, I would say that if I was a Christian. I am not. But if I was one, I would not want it imposed on other people.

SCARBOROUGH: Well, OK. Well, and, again, it's been imposed...

(CROSSTALK)

HITCHENS: And certainly not in this ugly—not in this ugly, vulgar, boring way?

SCARBOROUGH: It's ugly? What is ugly and vulgar and boring, Christmas trees?

(CROSSTALK)

HITCHENS: Don't you find the tinsel and the incessant stuff on the radio and the TV, don't you find it gets you down? Don't you find it's cheap and tinselly? I certainly do.

SCARBOROUGH: Well, you know what?

If it's cheap, that cheapness has been a part of American culture for 200 years. You talk about the separation of church and state.

(CROSSTALK)

SCARBOROUGH: I want to read you a couple of quotes.

(CROSSTALK)

SCARBOROUGH: Hold on a second. Hold on, Christopher. I will let you respond, but let me talk.

Here you have, in April 1787, Benjamin Franklin talking to the Constitutional Congress, saying: “I have lived a long time, sir, and the longer I live, the more convincing proofs I see of this, that God governs in the affairs of man, and, if a sparrow cannot fall to the ground without his notice, how can a great empire rise without his aid? The father of our country,” he said, “of all the dispositions and habits which lead to political prosperity, religion and morality are indispensable supports.”

I could read you 100 quotes...

(CROSSTALK)

HITCHENS: Yes, you could.

(CROSSTALK)

SCARBOROUGH: ... of founding fathers talking about the importance of religion and...

(CROSSTALK)

HITCHENS: There is not a word about Christianity in the...

(CROSSTALK)

SCARBOROUGH: I could get you quotes, though, from these founding fathers that did talk about Christianity.

HITCHENS: George Washington...

(CROSSTALK)

SCARBOROUGH: George Washington was a deist. Benjamin Franklin, whatever he felt obliged to say in public, was a nonbeliever.

(CROSSTALK)

MATHEW STAVER, PRESIDENT, LIBERTY COUNSEL: The problem that we have during Christmas, Joe...

(CROSSTALK)

SCARBOROUGH: Hold on.

(CROSSTALK)

SCARBOROUGH: Mat, we are falling back on the deist argument. That happens an awful lot.

(CROSSTALK)

HITCHENS: Not one word about Christianity in the founding documents, not one word.

(CROSSTALK)

STAVER: Joe, this is exactly the reason why we have this problem during Christmas. There is a war on Christmas.

Liberty Counsel represents Nathan Sage. And we are working with him to try to....

HITCHENS: Represents Jerry Falwell, you mean.

(CROSSTALK)

STAVER: ... reverse this ridiculous thing in Newport News, Virginia.

In Newport News, Virginia, they celebrate everything. They have got Santa Clauses. They have got the poinsettias. They have the snowmen. They even have what appears to everyone who looks at this a Christmas tree, a triangle looking tree that is decorated, but, lo and behold, because it has the name Christmas attached to it, even though it's otherwise a secular symbol, they have a bias to censor that out and change it to the tree of celebration.

(CROSSTALK)

SCARBOROUGH: Mat, you know—hold on a second, Mat.

Let's bring a little light to this, instead of all heat. Let's bring a little light to this conversation and talk about trends.

(CROSSTALK)

HITCHENS: Light only comes from heat.

SCARBOROUGH: OK. Thank you so much.

(CROSSTALK)

SCARBOROUGH: Christopher.

(CROSSTALK)

SCARBOROUGH: Hold on.

Guys, stop. God bless us all. Just stop and let's have a meaningful conversation.

HITCHENS: Well, don't invite me on and tell me to keep...

SCARBOROUGH: Instead of people talking on top of each other.

HITCHENS: Don't invite me on and tell me to keep quiet. Don't do that.

SCARBOROUGH: Well, Christopher, why don't you let other people talk for a second, OK?

HITCHENS: I came here to talk, not to listen to you. You invited me on for my opinions, not to listen to yours.

(CROSSTALK)

SCARBOROUGH: OK. Well, you know what, Christopher? I will never make that mistake again.

HITCHENS: Fair enough.

SCARBOROUGH: Mat, here's—here's the question, OK?

HITCHENS: Merry Christmas.

SCARBOROUGH: Merry Christmas and good night.

Mat, let's have a conversation here for a second.

STAVER: Thank you.

SCARBOROUGH: You are sitting here talking, and other Christians have been complaining about how there's been a war on Christmas for a long time.

But you have got to admit, there has been progress made. If you look at Macy's, if you look at Lowe's, if you look at what happens, like the city of Boston, if you look at the U.S. Congress...

STAVER: Exactly.

SCARBOROUGH: ... they are starting to bring the word Christmas back in these celebrations.

Now, for me personally, this doesn't really mean a whole lot. But, at the same time, it bugs me when people are so politically correct that they want to take the word Christ out of Christmas.

HITCHENS: It's not a matter...

(CROSSTALK)

SCARBOROUGH: So, will you admit that things are improving?

STAVER: Oh, no question. They are improving.

But they are improving because people are speaking up, because they are tired of this onslaught against Christmas. They are tired of the trend of the ACLU and others that espouse the views like Christopher that simply want to eliminate God and religion from the public square. And I think it is symbolic of what's happened to take a Christmas tree and rename it to something other than a Christmas tree.

Now, Boston, I applaud them, because, tonight, they lit not a holiday tree, which they intended to do about a week ago, but a Christmas tree. And that's what the mayor says it will always be now, as long as he is mayor. And I applaud him. I applaud Speaker Dennis Hastert for doing the same thing.

That's why we launched our Friend or Foe Christmas Campaign. And our Web site at LC.org, we have a memo...

SCARBOROUGH: All right.

HITCHENS: So, this is just a broadcast for Jerry Falwell now...

(CROSSTALK)

STAVER: ... that talks about what the law is.

SCARBOROUGH: All right. All right. OK. Hold on. Let's...

(CROSSTALK)

HITCHENS: I am supposed to just sit.

SCARBOROUGH: OK, Christopher, go ahead.

HITCHENS: I am supposed to just sit and listen to a broadcast for Jerry Falwell from Lynchburg. Is that right?

SCARBOROUGH: Go ahead.

HITCHENS: OK?

SCARBOROUGH: Go ahead.

HITCHENS: The tree long predates Christmas.

There's been a festival of light, in fact, and of trees, Yule logs trees—that's where they're all from Scandinavia—since the winter solstice was first thought of, long before any mythical event in the Middle East, a birth that the date of which even the Bible cannot get right and repeatedly gets wrong.

That—that's fine. People can celebrate it all they like. It would be impossible to live in this country and not notice that there are lots of Christians who like to celebrate the birthday of the person they believe is their savior. You cannot possibly escape it. But we don't want it to enjoy any public preference or subsidy.

And the Constitution says that we don't have to. And the progress you are talking about with this guy from Lynchburg...

SCARBOROUGH: But it doesn't say that, Christopher.

HITCHENS: This guy from Lynchburg defines progress as teaching junk science to our children, and leaving us the mockery of the world by pretending that we did not evolve.

(CROSSTALK)

SCARBOROUGH: Hold on a second.

We are not going to debate intelligent—we are not going to debate intelligent design right here, but, Christopher...

HITCHENS: That's progress to him. And he's a front man—and he's a front man—and he's a front man—and he's a front man for the fat-faced reverend...

SCARBOROUGH: OK, Christopher. Hold on.

(CROSSTALK)

STAVER: Joe, I think Christopher is really...

HITCHENS: ... who applauded the destruction of the World Trade Center.

SCARBOROUGH: OK. OK. You know what? You know what?

HITCHENS: Front man Falwell.

SCARBOROUGH: We—this, unfortunately, is—is now moving into intelligent design.

HITCHENS: Falwell said the World Trade Center was brought down by God.

SCARBOROUGH: I want to thank you for being with us, Christopher.

Game, set, and match to Hitchens. Sure, I wish he'd come prepared with some nice quotes about the Founding Fathers NOT trying to set this up as a Christian nation, but OK. He did get in a bit about the pagan origins of Christmas trees and the other symbols that the Christofascist Zombie Brigade seem to think have something to do with Jesus, and he did get Scarborough to look completely moronic by saying that the cheapness and tawdriness of American Christmas has been with us for 200 years (which it hasn't). And the stuff about Falwell is priceless.

As I've posted before, I'm all for making Christmas a Christian holiday again. That means we pagans take our symbols back and return them to their origins. Christians can have their nativity, their creche, they can even have Handel's Messiah. But no more gifts, no more choruses of Rockin' Around the Christmas Tree, no more awful Old Navy ads with Morgan Fairchild in a skimpy Santa outfit, no more rampant consumerism. Just good, Christian families celebrating the birth of their Messiah in their churches and homes.

Meanwhile, we pagans will decorate our trees, kiss under the mistletoe, and drink the eggnog and celebrate that we've turned the corner on winter.

I'd take that deal in a heartbeat. How about you?

Exhibit A: Fundie Christofascist thugs who put a religion professor into the hospital because he planned to teach intelligent design as a mythology:

A University of Kansas religious studies professor is recovering from a beating he says was based on his opposition to Christian fundamentalists.

Paul Mirecki told Douglas County sheriff's deputies he was beaten early Monday morning on the side of a rural road outside Lawrence by two men who'd been tailgating him in a large pickup truck. Mirecki told the Lawrence Journal-World his attackers made references to the controversial remarks made on the Internet denouncing Christian Conservatives and Catholics.

The men punched him about the head and shoulders and struck him with a metal object, he said.

Mirecki recently wrote online that he planned to teach intelligent design as mythology in an upcoming course. He wrote it would be a "nice slap" in the "big fat face" of fundamentalists.

The remarks caused an uproar, Mirecki apologized, and the university announced last week the class would be canceled.

Tuesday, deputies circulated descriptions of the attackers and their vehicle, the report said.

Is there a more infuriating columnist than Nicholas Kristof? He'll write something so sycophantic to the current Administration you want to put his photo up on a dartboard, and then he'll do a series on Darfur that takes your breath away. Then he'll do a column like this, which points out a fact that needs to be addressed, but does it in a completely dumbass way.

Today he takes on the ridiculous debate over intelligent design, and says what ought to be obvious to everyone: that this debate is about American illiteracy in science and math -- and essentially blames East Coast intellectuals (read: liberals):

One-fifth of Americans still believe that the Sun goes around the Earth, instead of the other way around. And only about half know that humans did not live at the same time as dinosaurs.

The problem isn't just inadequate science (and math) teaching in the schools, however. A larger problem is the arrogance of the liberal arts, the cultural snootiness of, of ... well, of people like me - and probably you.

What do I mean by that? In the U.S. and most of the Western world, it's considered barbaric in educated circles to be unfamiliar with Plato or Monet or Dickens, but quite natural to be oblivious of quarks and chi-squares. A century ago, Einstein published his first paper on relativity - making 1905 as important a milestone for world history as 1066 or 1789 - but relativity has yet to filter into the consciousness of otherwise educated people.

"The great edifice of modern physics goes up, and the majority of the cleverest people in the Western world have about as much insight into it as their neolithic ancestors would have had," C. P. Snow wrote in his classic essay, "The Two Cultures."

The counterargument is that we can always hire technicians in Bangalore, while it's Shakespeare and Goethe who teach us the values we need to harness science for humanity. There's something to that. If President Bush were about to attack Iraq all over again, he would be better off reading Sophocles - to appreciate the dangers of hubris - than studying the science of explosives.

Kristof is wrong, of course....illiteracy in math and science is not some kind of East Coast liberal conspiracy, it's because, to paraphrase Barbie, math and science are hard.

Some of us breeze through chemistry and biology as if it's kindergarten. Others find it a trial and tribulation imposed on us for some unknown and nefarious purpos