Posted 1:30 PM by Scoobie Davis

Highly Rated Films
When I rate a film highly, it usually fits into two categories: great films that I'm not necessarily eager to see soon again or good-but-not-great films that are just fun. In the former category: City of God, Requiem for a Dream. In the latter category: The Back to the Future series.

In the past week, I've seen two films. One fits into the great-film-but-unpleasant category and the other fits into the very-entertaining-but-not-great category. The very-entertaining-but-not-great film was The Simpsons Movie. It was not as fun as the premiere party but it was worth my time.

The great-film-but-unpleasant was No End in Sight, a documentary about the Bush adminstration's appalling handling of the Iraq War. What made the film so depressing is that it is so well made. The film documents the catastrophic ineptitude of the Bush administration and their enablers.
Here is the film web site and here is the trailer:

Posted 11:43 PM by Scoobie Davis

Was It a Regent University Law School Grad?
I was checking my Sitemeter stats for this web site last week and found that someone from the US Department of Justice came to this site based on a Google search of the words "Gore" and "Monticello" (this site ranks high for these keywords). I receive a lot of hits for this search because an urban legend created by the right: according to the legend, after the 1992 election, when the Clintons and Gores toured Thomas Jefferson's home Monticello, that Al Gore didn't recognize busts of Benjamin Franklin and George Washington. This, of course, was absurd and a lie of the right (my post from the Google search gives the truth about the matter). I first witnessed the right trying to score political points on this non-gaffe when I tuned into Rush Limbaugh's television show back in the 1990's (Limbaugh's show was produced by the now-head of the fair-and-balanced channel, Roger Ailes). The reason I wrote the post was that Ann Coulter recycled this canard in 2002 for her book Slander: Liberal Lies About the American Right. Back to the DOJ query, why is someone in the DOJ doing a keyword search for possibly damaging information about a possible presidential candidate?

Posted 1:23 PM by Scoobie Davis

Must Read
Orcinus on Bill O'Reilly

Posted 12:53 PM by Scoobie Davis

Woo Hoo! I Crashed The Simpsons Movie World Premiere After-Party!

It was last night. They held the premiere in Westwood and the after-party was at the Wadsworth Theatre parking lot. They must have spent close to a million dollars just on the after-party. I liked the Simpsons art that was on display at the after-party (pop art and abstract Simpsons art). There are some blogs that have photos--here and here, . There were three "Simpsons yellow" geodesic domes at the party. They hired actresses to wear tight yellow outfits and (they had hula hoops). Similar to what they did at the Superman Returns premiere after-party, Kodak had booths in which you could get your picture taken on the Simpsons couch with plastic members of the Simpsons clan (see photo). Burger King had a "Simpsonize Me" booth. Catering was by Poko Event Productions (I've been doing the raw food diet for the past few months and the great food here caused me to go off the diet big time). One of the geodesic domes had a Marge-a-rita bar. There was a Squishee booth. There was a booth in which they made a wax impression of your hand to hold a plastic donut--they closed that booth before I could get one. I had a great time.

UPDATE: More photos here. Also, I almost forgot: I saw Efren Ramirez, who played Pedro in Napoleon Dynamite, at the premiere.

Posted 9:05 AM by Scoobie Davis

Must Read
Eric Boehlert on Swift-boating

Posted 12:38 PM by Scoobie Davis

Bad Taste
T-shirt found on Ebay re the Michael Vick arrest (note: "Ron Mexico" is a Michael Vick alias):

Posted 2:57 AM by Scoobie Davis

Blaming The Victim, Part II
The other day, I mentioned how Sun Myung Moon's Unification organization blamed former Moon daughter-in-law and victim Nansook Hong for her victimization. The same holds true for another victim of the cult: Cathryn Mazer. Watch Mazer's story on the BBC video "Emperor of the Universe" between 20:00 and 26:00 and read what Moon's organization wrote about her.

Note: "Emperor of the Universe" is an eye-opening film for those not familiar with Moon and the Unification movement. PBS's "Frontline" did a thoughtful program on Moon in 1992. I couldn't find it on YouTube but a transcript and a clip are available here.

Posted 2:01 PM by Scoobie Davis

The Truth about Kos And O'Reilly
Media Matters has it.

Posted 12:43 PM by Scoobie Davis

Thought-Provoking Read
Gabriel Cousen's Rainbow Green Live-Food Cuisine. You can read an excerpt on Amazon.com.

Posted 10:40 AM by Scoobie Davis

Read This
Eric Boehlert on Murdoch, Ailes, and The Wall Street Journal.

Posted 12:40 PM by Scoobie Davis

Sun Myung Moon Targets Russian Education System
The story is here.

Also, blaming the victim. Victim of the Moon family blamed for her ordeal with the Moon family (click here).

UPDATE: Here's the 60 Minutes segment on Hong's ordeal in the Moon family:

Posted 10:29 AM by Scoobie Davis

The End of Amway in Great Britain?
The story about the GOP company's troubles here.

UPDATE I: More sobering news for Amway/Quixtar

UPDATE II: Check out the new Amway blog.

Posted 9:07 AM by Scoobie Davis

Must View
Fox Attacks the Environment:

Posted 11:13 AM by Scoobie Davis

Must Read
Robert Parry on Novak and Plame

Posted 3:25 PM by Scoobie Davis

New Chick Tract
"Guilty"