Posted 12:18 PM by Scoobie Davis

Voting "No" for President?
I don't care for any of the presidential candidates.

Posted 2:45 PM by Scoobie Davis

Yeah, It's Jack Chick

Catholic blogger Jimmy Akin recently found what he purported was a recent photo of Jack T. Chick (Chick is purportedly on the left). Having met with Jack Chick a couple times, I know what Jack Chick looks like. I can confirm that the man on the left in the photo is Jack Chick.

Read more about it here.

Posted 10:00 AM by Scoobie Davis

Must Read
Paul Krugman on Rupert Murdoch:

The problem with Mr. Murdoch isn’t that he’s a right-wing ideologue. If that were all he was, he’d be much less dangerous. What he is, rather, is an opportunist who exploits a rule-free media environment — one created, in part, by conservative political power — by slanting news coverage to favor whoever he thinks will serve his business interests.

Posted 1:03 PM by Scoobie Davis

In Defense of Animal House

Sean Daniel on the maligned film.

Posted 12:43 PM by Scoobie Davis

Funny Funny Funny
Lewis Black on media.

Posted 3:17 PM by Scoobie Davis

Great!
Elizabeth Edwards tells off Coulter.

Posted 11:38 AM by Scoobie Davis

Read of the Day
Eric Boehlert's "The Washington Post weeps for Scooter Libby"

Posted 10:07 AM by Scoobie Davis

Must Read
Robert Parry's "The Iraq-gate Cover-up Continues":

In another show trial for Saddam Hussein’s compatriots – followed by more death sentences – an unnoted success for George W. Bush was how the U.S. press corps has continued to avert its eyes from the role of Westerners, including Bush’s father, in aiding and abetting Hussein’s murderous regime.

Major U.S. newspapers, including the New York Times and the Washington Post, reported on the June 24 death sentences meted out to Ali Hassan al-Majeed and two other senior Hussein aides without a single mention of the American role in helping arm and protect the Iraqi regime in the 1980s.

A special Iraqi tribunal handed down the death sentences after a tainted legal process that saw Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki oust the original chief judge for making comments viewed as favorable to the defense. The defendants also were denied the opportunity to call witnesses because of security concerns.

The prospect of real justice was impaired, too, when Maliki rushed Hussein to the gallows on Dec. 30, 2006, eliminating the possibility that the former dictator might offer explosive testimony, including how his regime got the chemical weapons that were deployed against Iranian troops and their Iraqi Kurdish allies during the Iran-Iraq War.

Posted 12:39 PM by Scoobie Davis

Must Read
R J Eskow's "Libby Apologists Are A Gift to Anthropologists Everywhere":

If I were studying sociology or anthropology I'd drop everything right now and run to Washington, DC. There's a great piece to be written about what Scooter Libby's defenders reveal about that city's power elite. (Think Mean Girls meets All the President's Men.) What an opportunity: The response to a perceived attack on one of the tribe is revealing a hidden culture to the world.

Social scientists will tell you that most communities are divided into at least two groups, insiders and interlopers. Washington is no exception. "He came in and trashed the place," David Broder famously wrote of Bill Clinton, "and it wasn't his place." It's Scooter Libby's place, though. He's part of the capital's power elite, a culture with its own social hierarchy, folkways, and shared beliefs

Posted 9:25 AM by Scoobie Davis

Ronald Reagan's Revealing Movie Review
I checked out The Reagan Diaries in the bookstore the other day and found a brief but revealing movie review. On February 13, 1982, Reagan wrote the following:

Ran "Inchon"--it is a brutal but gripping picture about the Korean War and for once we're the good guys and the Communists are the villains. The producer was Japanese or Korean which probably explains the preceding sentence.

This short review was revealing in several instances. First, Reagan seems to be going against the grain in that the Sun Myung Moon-produced film is widely regarded--by both the right and the left--as one of the worst films of all time (I have written about Inchon and why it is so bad--this post also gives info on how to obtain a bootleg copy of the film).

The sentence about the "Japanese or Korean" producer was also interesting. I'm not sure if Reagan was referring to Moon or one of the film's other Japanese or Korean producers--namely Mitsuhari Ishii and Matsusaburo Sakaguchi. If Reagan were referring to Moon, it would be soon that he would know more about the cult leader. It was around the time of the review that Moon began publishing the quasi-newspaper The Washington Times which has become a de facto $3 billion contribution by the cult leader to the Republican Party. The Times soon became Reagan's favorite read. I could spend a lot of space elaborating on the reasons why. One good reason: the paper's editorial leanings (also click here) meet the expectations of a man who launched his presidential campaign by going to the Mississippi town in which three civil rights workers had been slain and announced his support of "states rights."

Addendum: Some of my recent posts on Sun Myung Moon:
1. Why the Democrats have been chumps for not going after Moon.
2. An open letter to Dateline NBC's Chris Hansen regarding Moon's predation. Here's another post on that subject.
3. How Chris Matthews sold his soul to Moon's media apparatus.
4. How Hillary was rewarded for playing nice with Moon--also an update.
5. My post "Is Opposition to Sun Myung Moon Religious Bigotry?"
6. Orrin Hatch and Moon.

UPDATE: Today I was checking out my Sitemeter stats and found that someone from the Vatican spent about 20 minutes reading my post about Hillary and the Moonie media (based on a Google search of "Josette Shiner"). Is Pope Benedict reading my blog?

Posted 10:50 AM by Scoobie Davis

Must Read
Greg Palast update on caging lists, Karl Rove, and Tim Griffin.

Posted 1:46 PM by Scoobie Davis

Must Read
Glenn Greenwald on the right's phony machismo.

Posted 8:23 PM by Scoobie Davis

The Newest Bush Scandal: The Vulture Funds

How Bush's contributers (and Guiliani's main fundraiser) are lining their pockets by buying third world debts about to be written off and collecting big profits. Watch the Greg Palast video and read the story.

Posted 11:02 AM by Scoobie Davis

Busy Busy Busy
Sorry about not posting for a while. I've been very busy. I tried to crash the premiere-after party for Ocean's 13 but got denied. After the premiere was over, I saw Larry David at the valet parking area (He drives a Prius). I make it a practice not to say anything to stars unless it's something they would appreciate. I was tempted to tell him that I admired his wife Laurie's work for the environment (Good thing I didn't say anything because the next day, I heard on the radio about the Davids' separation).

Posted 10:53 AM by Scoobie Davis

Buh Bye Tim Griffin

Greg Palast deserves a Pulitzer Prize. Griffin is the operative that Fred Thompson has been grooming to work on his campaign. Every American should know the word caging and what it means.

Other caging resources:
1. Palast's recent post on caging: "Raging Caging: What the heck is vote caging, and why should we care?" Here's another article.
2. Slate's Dahlia Lithwick on caging.
3. The always reliable Brad Blog has an article.
4. Think Progress article