Dude Has Jokes!

Can you imagine? Whew! This is a good one!

President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad on Tuesday challenged the authority of the U.N. Security Council as Iran faces a deadline to halt its uranium enrichment and he called for a televised debate with President Bush on world issues.

The Security Council has given Iran until Thursday to suspend enrichment, a process that can produce either fuel for a reactor or material for weapons.

"The U.S. and Britain are the source of many tensions," Ahmadinejad said at a news conference. "At the Security Council, where they have to protect security, they enjoy the veto right. If anybody confronts them, there is no place to take complaints to.

"This (veto right) is the source of problems of the world. ... It is an insult to the dignity, independence, freedom and sovereignty of nations," he said.

The Color Of The Hand Holding The Money

Now here's something I am totally not surprised to see. While I am sure this is the case in other cities as well, this is the Chicago where I grew up and am not sure it will ever change.

This practice sometimes even came at the expense of the bottom line. "Against her own economic interest, one real estate agent told a potential African-American home buyer that he should rent rather than buy, although his financial profile was stronger than his white counterpart's" the alliance report said. "He was shown no units; the white home seeker working with the same agent saw 21 units.''

The investigation reveals that it's not the color of the money, Smith said to me during a telephone interview -- "it's the color of the hand holding the money."

This has been an open secret in this city for generations. Forty years ago, the Chicago Freedom Movement, led by the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr., decided to focus on housing discrimination. One hundred white Chicago real estate offices were tested to see if they discriminated against blacks. They all did. This led to staged protests outside the discriminating real estate offices around the city. Before it was over, King took a rock to the head thrown by an angry white man who didn't want to see blacks buy, rent or participate in a protest march in lily-white Marquette Park. The Chicago Freedom Movement's efforts helped lead to the passing of the Fair Housing Act 38 years ago.

Since then, things have changed, but not much. In the old days, agents would just come out and say "Blacks live here. Who will your kids date?"

Coded words have replaced such crudities, but the sentiments remain the same. Agents now warn that "the neighborhood hasn't quite turned around yet," or speak of crime or schools. Even when a black owns property in an integrated neighborhood, it's best that family pictures and ethnic art are removed from the walls for the sake of a sale. Real estate appraisers have been known to lower the value of a home in an integrated neighborhood when they see that it's owned by an African American.

While President Bush touts increased African-American home ownership as a national goal, he hasn't put his muscle where his mouth is. Fair housing laws aren't strictly enforced, allowing agents like those at Coldwell Banker, one of Chicago's leading real estate firms, allegedly to skirt them.

As expected, Doug Ayers, Coldwell Banker's Chicago president, insists his company adheres to the fair housing laws. He has even been quoted as saying he believes defying them is bad business.

That's particularly true for black Chicago. Economic competition doesn't happen when racial steering is at play. Homeowners on the South Side need to have the entire market competing for their homes if they expect to get comparable prices for their property. And as long as real estate agents push North Side residences as the property of choice, that finite quantity will benefit unfairly from the law of supply and demand.

And when African-American home buyers are prevented from even getting in on that deal, it makes me wonder if whoever said "money isn't everything" was taking racism into account.

Granted it was more than a couple decades ago, but this reminds me of an encounter I had on the phone when I was a receptionist at a company on Chicago's Northwest side. Actually it was a Northwest suburb that bordered on the Northwest side (I actually thought it was still Chicago but found it was its own city). A caller, looking for employment information, asked where we were located and I gave her the address. She went on to ask "is that area integrated?" Stupid me, I'm thinking she was probably asking if it was incorporated (maybe as confused as I had been about whether it was a neighborhood in Chicago or its own entity) so I asked "what do you mean?" She kinda quivers and replies "I mean ... are there any blacks there?" I guess I "talk white" so she didn't know that at least one black was there so I say "well, I'm here!" She gasps then she goes "You're black?" "Why yes!" I replied. She told me "okay, thank you" and hung up. I guess she didn't want a job that bad.

He Might Come With His People

P6 says he expects this since it is in Mississippi. I suppose I'll have to agree but, gees, it's 2006.

The church was "afraid Joe might come with his people and have blacks in the church," Stevens said. "I could not go along with that. There would always be a wall between us, so I resigned that night."...

Since Stevens' resignation, one church member who was not at the Aug. 6 meeting has called the former pastor and told him he was in favor of what he did. Stevens estimates 80 percent of the church is against having blacks as members of the congregation.

I have to admit this story made me laugh. Are people really still this silly?

Hezbollah Didn't See Them Coming

But they sure enough had dinner ready for them when they got there.

Hezbollah leader Sheik Hassan Nasrallah said in a TV interview aired Sunday that he would not have ordered the capture of two Israeli soldiers if he had known it would lead to such a war.

Guerrillas from the Islamic militant group killed three Israeli soldiers and seized two more in a cross-border raid July 12, which sparked 34 days of fighting that ended with a cease-fire on Aug. 14.

"We did not think, even 1 percent, that the capture would lead to a war at this time and of this magnitude. You ask me, if I had known on July 11 ... that the operation would lead to such a war, would I do it? I say no, absolutely not," he said in an interview with Lebanon's New TV station.

I guess both parties learned something in this waste of a war. Hezbollah didn't think Israel would attack. Israel didn't think Hezbollah would have the forces to fight back. What's that saying? "Know thine enemy?" Neither side did.

Losing It

Why am I having flashbacks about Iraq? Has Israel lost it? Let's see how they explain this one.

Two missiles fired by Israeli aircraft early Sunday morning hit an armored car belonging to the Reuters news agency, moderately wounding two television cameramen and three bystanders, Palestinian witnesses and hospital officials said.

The Israeli army said it was checking the report.

According to witnesses, a Reuters cameraman and a freelance cameraman working for an Arabic network were standing outside the vehicle in the Shajaiyeh neighborhood of Gaza filming a nearby Israeli raid when the missiles hit the car.

The white sports utility vehicle was emblazoned with the Reuters logo and had "TV" written on it in English, Arabic and Hebrew, witnesses said.

The cameramen, along with three bystanders, were moderately injured with shrapnel wounds and all five were to undergo surgery, hospital officials said.

He's Baaack!!!

Now here's the Pat Buchanan I used to know and hate. We may agree on Bush's foreign policy disasters but his paranoia of and bias against brown (and black) people is coming to the forefront again.

Appearing on Imus In the Morning to promote his new book, State of Emergency, Pat Buchanan asserted that the Mexican government has a direct program to reannex the seven states of the American Southwest. The first step is for Mexico to push the poor, unemployed, and uneducated into the United States. He criticized President Bush for not understanding the nature and character of the invasion from Mexico ...

I saw Pat on Hardball with Chris Matthews the other night. He was pulling that "They don't assimilate. They don't learn English." bull. He failed to come up with an adequate response when Chris argued that the 2nd generation (as with children of every other immigrant group) learns and speaks English - even if they are bi-lingual. I've said this before and I'll say it again regarding good ole Irish Catholic pundits like Pat Buchanan and Bill O'Reilly (here's one of Bill's tirade). Their people sold their souls and their culture to aspire for WASPdom. All they have left is the stereotype of being drunks who fight and that's not positive. They've melted in but into what?

Not only do brown immigrants stand out because of their color, they maintain the integrity of their homelands while trying to integrate - as needed and as allowed. I think Pat and Bill are jealous. Though they still aren't WASPs, they aren't the "trash" they were once labeled and felt they'd finally made it to the top. Now that they can claim a certain level of "whitedom," the nation is becoming more colored and less "white" by the second. I don't know what to tell these guys. I think it is too late and unless some drastic deportation or extermination plot is launched, they'll just have to pack up and settle in the land of their ancestors (though I hear Ireland is coloring up too). They can call people "third world" if they want but they are the majority of the world and if select Europeans ('cause the Irish Catholics here seem to be getting free benefits from the treachery that real white people imposed on the world) hadn't spent so many centuries traipsing around the globe invading, raping and pillaging and theiving from other lands, these people wouldn't be following them home looking for the "good life" they made at their expense. The chickens have come home to roost, boys! Suck it up and get over it!

Here's more of his fear mongering. And a clip here as well.

Survivor Is Losing Buoyancy

This is something else I was ignoring. I wasn't an initial fan of Survivor and haven't seen all of the seasons. I did happen to see the two seasons when a person of color won (they were both black as far as I am concerned but one of Puerto Rican so she got the "Hispanic" label). Yes, like Friends and most popular sitcoms, the cast is usually all white. Like Jeopardy, they claim a lot of minorities don't try out. From what I've seen, if the black player is strong and athletic, the white people claim that they are aggressive, outspoken and scary and they vote them out early on. The colored chicks who won were both somewhat quiet, considered non-threatening (both physically and intellectually) and they just sat by and watched all the crazy white folks pick each other off. Lack of diversity is one thing, but there was no need to do all of this.

Who would've thought reinstituting segregation would cause such controversy? Oh, right. Everyone but the producers of Survivor.

A group of New York City officials have blasted CBS' announcement that it split the contestants on Survivor: Cook Islands into tribes by race, claiming the producers' decision to pit blacks, whites, Asians and Hispanics against each other during the early rounds of the show would only promote divisiveness among competitors and viewers alike.

"The idea of having a battle of the races is preposterous," city councilman John Liu told the Associated Press. "How could anybody be so desperate for ratings?"

Liu claimed the show's divisive premise would do nothing but promote the spread of negative stereotypes based on the actions of the different tribes, something that, just two days after the announcement, is already an issue.

Right-wing mouthpiece Rush Limbaugh, always keen to bluntly pontificate on delicate subjects, took to handicapping the new season on his radio show Wednesday.

Hispanics, he said, "have shown a remarkable ability to cross borders" and "will do things other people won't do." Asians, per Limbaugh, are "the best at espionage, keeping secrets." Blacks "lack buoyancy" and are "more likely to drown," while the white man's burden will weigh down the last team with "guilt over the fact that they run things."

So much for breaking stereotypes.

I'm not sure why this thing with black people swimming is getting so much play these days. I cannot swim. I never learned. As an adult, I had and still have the opportunity to learn but it isn't on my list of to do's for some reason.

Did anyone ever stop to think that both our American apartheid system and the subsequent institutionalized racism kept swimming pools out of the inner cities and other areas where blacks were forced to live? Did anyone ever stop to think that black people were not allowed access to public swimming pools even in integrated areas? There was no safe pool in my neighborhood when I grew up. There was no pool at my small Catholic high school that was predominately black. I attended a suburban public school for my junior and senior years (and swimming wasn't an elective for PE at those grade levels) and found that, even though I was "the North", one of my black classmates whose parents had attended the same high school said that when they attended, blacks were not allowed in the pool. The "can't swim" thing isn't a genetic defect. It is something that arose from segregation and lack of access. Culturally it may have evolved because if parents can't swim, they may not feel safe allowing their children to unless it is part of a controlled curriculum - and it still isn't an option in many black neighborhoods and school districts. What irritates me about this latest stream of comments from white politicians and pundits is that they totally fail to acknowledge that racism is the reason why many (and it is generational ... more and more blacks can swim and once we start winning the Olympics they will be pouting) blacks never learned to swim and/or aren't good swimmers.

All that said, anyone who has ever watched Survivor knows that they are usually on a beach and that a good number of the challenges are in the water. Therefore, my question to blacks who get on the show who aren't strong swimmers is "why did you take your black ass on the show? You know all they do is dive and swim!" The folks in the black tribe better not get on there only having been in a pool at the YMCA!

P.S. Rush Limbaugh is a big, fat, Viagra needing, Dominican child prostitute buying idiot! I'll bet his big ass has plenty of buoyancy.

I Don't Believe It

I didn't blog this story at first because I just knew that it would be revealed that there was some kind of misunderstanding and that it was being blown out of proportion in the media. I've still got my fingers crossed and am waiting for information to the contrary.

A Louisiana school district suspended a white bus driver while it investigates complaints that she ordered nine black children to sit at the back of the bus.

No previous complaints have been lodged against the driver, who has worked several years for the Red River Parish school district, school Superintendent Kay Easley said Thursday. She refused to reveal the driver's name.

"I'm trying to get all this straight, and settled, so we can all move on," Easley said.

Two mothers, both black, sparked the investigation with a complaint on Monday that their children and the other black children had been ordered to sit in two rows of seats in the rear of the bus.

"In all these years, I've never had a problem like this," said Janice Williams, whose four children ride public school buses.

One of her children, Jarvonica Williams, 16, said the bus driver allowed many white students to have seats all to themselves while some blacks were forced to stand or sit in others' laps.

Iva Richmond, whose 14- and 15-year-old children were on the bus, said Thursday that they previously had a black bus driver, but their bus assignment changed this year. When school started this month, the white driver told them she had assigned them seats, with the black children at the back of the bus.

Richmond said she complained to a local principal, who told the driver that if any children were assigned to seats, all would have to be.

Early last week, the driver assigned black students to two seats in the back of the bus, Richmond said.

"All nine children were assigned to two seats in the back of the bus and the older ones had to hold the smaller ones in their laps," she said.

... tapping my foot and still waiting (while trying not to fume).

Why Are People So Crazy?

Worldwide wackos!

An 18-year-old woman who was kidnapped eight years ago and held captive in a cellar managed to escape, and her alleged abductor committed suicide by jumping in front of a train, authorities said Thursday.

Natascha Kampusch was found in a yard in a residential area northeast of Vienna on Wednesday afternoon. She was identified by a scar on one of her arms from a childhood operation, authorities said, ending one of Austria's biggest police mysteries. She had disappeared while walking to school as a 10-year-old.

The alleged kidnapper has been identified by Austrian media as 44-year-old Wolfgang Priklopil. A DNA analysis was under way to confirm his identity, Austrian television reported.

I'll Just Bet It Does ...

Syria Opposes U.N. Forces on Its Border

Syria on Wednesday opposed deployment of an international force along its border to prevent arms shipments to Hezbollah, and Israel called the situation in Lebanon "explosive." A cease-fire was further shaken by artillery shells and explosions that killed three Lebanese soldiers and an Israeli.

How 'bout one big DUH on that?!

Lose New Friends But Lose The Old ...

Just can't get it right!

It was always going to be tough for Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice to hold together her fragile coalition of world powers trying to rein in Iran’s nuclear ambitions. The Israel-Hezbollah war in Lebanon has made that job harder.

While Iran’s official response to the package of carrots from the United States, Britain, France, Germany, Russia and China was, at 21 pages, voluminous, the key point is that Iran’s leaders did not agree to suspend enrichment of uranium, the central demand of the coalition.

Now the question is whether Ms. Rice, who returned from vacation this week and was studying Iran’s response, can keep the coalition together to take out their sticks against Iran.

That will not be easy, in part because the entire United Nations Security Council is supposed to vote on the sanctions package. While only the permanent members can veto, the rising fear, particularly among European diplomats, is that smaller countries on the Council are so angry over how the United States, and now France, have handled the Lebanon crisis that they will give Russia and China political cover to balk against imposing tough sanctions.

While France, for instance, has been almost as insistent on a tough stance against Iran’s nuclear program as the United States, France has also in recent days alienated many members of the Security Council by offering only 200 troops to a peacekeeping effort in Lebanon.

“The Lebanese situation has caused a lot of bad faith and I think that will play into this,” said one European diplomat, who spoke on condition of anonymity under normal diplomatic rules.

Like It Or Not, You're Going To Iraq

Nobody raised their hand so the teacher just started picking people. I'll bet that is how these soldiers feel.

President Bush has authorized the U.S. Marine Corps to recall 2,500 troops to active duty because there are not enough volunteers returning for duty in Afghanistan and Iraq, Marine commanders announced Tuesday.


The recall was authorized last month, and will begin in spring 2007 to fill positions for upcoming rotations, Marine officials said. The Marine Corps is currently picking volunteers from the Marine Individual Ready Reserve, the officials said.


Marine Col. Guy A. Stratton, head of the manpower mobilization section, told The Associated Press that there is a shortfall of about 1,200 Marines needed to fill positions in upcoming unit deployments.


"Since this is going to be a long war, we thought it was judicious and prudent at this time to be able to use a relatively small portion of those Marines to help us augment our units," Stratton said, according to the AP.


Tours for recalled Marines could last 12 to 18 months, according to Marine officials.


Marines are trying to fill combat, communications, intelligence, engineering and military police positions, according to the Marine Corps.


Though the initial recall is for 2,500 troops, there is no cap on how many could be called up in the future.

Why is it starting to sound like all we have over there are dummies, crazies and folks who really don't want to go? What a way to win a war!

Kidneys For Christ

I've yet to post about the heated conversations I've been having over the past couple of weeks about religion on some of my discussion lists. But, these are the kinds of folks I have been attempting to debate with. Reasoning with these people is all but hopeless.

Aleta Smith, who donated her kidney to a 20-year-old college student last year, wants it back now that the student has changed religions.
Smith, a self-described "on-fire Christian," gave her kidney to Hannah Felks, a Lutheran and regular Christian camp counselor, last year after seeing Felks on the local news.
"She was going to die unless she got a kidney," Smith says, sitting on the porch at her home. "They portrayed her as this nice Christian girl who works with kids. I saw it as a great opportunity to help a sister in the Lord."
The surgery grabbed headlines and Smith was lauded for her selflessness. But shortly after the surgery, Felks embarked on a "spiritual journey" to try out other religions, and settled on a blend of Pagan and Hindu beliefs.
"I wanted to get away from the belief system I was raised in and find the truth for myself," she says. She took a semester off to travel the world visiting spiritualists on three continents.
Smith was aghast when she heard of the conversion, and she quickly wrote a letter asking Felks to re-convert to Christianity or return the organ, saying it was donated under false pretenses.
"I feel helpless," she says. "Part of my body, my DNA, is stuck inside a person who's going to hell."
Smith suffers nightmares of her former organ filtering "strange Asian teas, pig blood and witch doctor brews in Africa," she says. She wonders if the Lord really wanted her to donate the kidney, or if she acted on a "triple-espresso high" she had that morning. She is also concerned that when her body is resurrected, it might be incomplete.
Felks frets that Smith is an "Indian giver," and says religious affiliation was never an issue.
"The kidney's working fine," Felks said by phone from Thailand. "I feel bad for Aleta. She did something wonderful for me, but that doesn't mean she gets to control my life."
In the meantime, Smith has alerted several dozen prayer chains, and her women's Bible study group is praying 12 hours a day for the re-conversion of Felks — and Smith's former kidney.
"I'm all for spiritual curiosity," she says, "but you've got to settle these things beforehand. My kidney belongs to Christ. It will never be Pagan."

While this is satire, I've seen tirades from folks who don't want people to pray for them if they aren't Christian; those who think that the mentally ill are posessed by the devil; those who don't think Catholics are Christian. Hearing that one of them regretted donating a kidney to someone who wasn't Christian would not be a stretch nor would hearing that one of them refused to donate a kidney to someone who wasn't Christian. I don't know who is teaching the word to these folks but their lessons are in no way Christlike.

Seeing Red

Come on people! The voters of Connecticut elected Ned Lamont. The Democratic party didn't force voters to select him. Joe Lieberman was not following the will of his constituents and they chose someone else. If, like our President, he wants to cling to the "I did the right thing" line regarding Iraq, then he needs to accept the consequences. Even if he wins as an Independent, he has basically told his longtime supporters that his opinion is more valid than theirs. He's maintained the support of some loyalists and garnered the support of fair weather Republicans who see this as an opportunity to stick it to the Democrats. But, he's also attracted GOP crazies, who always have to take it to a whole "nuther" level..

- In case you thought McCarthyism in the press died out in the late-1950s, consider this past Sunday’s editorial in the daily newspaper in Waterbury, Connecticut. At least Ann Coulter, an avowed fan of Sen. Joseph McCarthy, has moved on to current threats (terrorists and other liberals), while the aptly named Republican-American, Sunday circ 60,000, is still obsessed with Communists.

It’s almost quaint, but as the author of a book about 1950s politics, I have to add that Red-baiting is no joke, even when the Red Menace is no more.

Not many were laughing late last Sept. 1, either, when New Orleans’ besieged Times-Picayune, then underwater and only publishing online, felt it had to reply to the Waterbury paper after it suggested their city might not be worth “re-claiming” after Katrina. "How dare they?" the Times-Picayune asked.

Not surprisingly, this past Sunday’s editorial was inspired by Ned Lamont’s upset victory in the state’s Democratic primary for the U.S. Senate last Tuesday, in which he edged Joseph Lieberman, mainly on grounds that the incumbent backed President Bush on the Iraq war and several other key issues. Lieberman is now running as an Independent.

On the surface, Lamont seems blessed with Republican-like credentials. He is a true blueblood, a phenomenally successful businessman and terribly rich. His father, Ted, a longtime Republican, was an economist who worked with the Marshall Plan, and later served in the Nixon administration. His uncle, Thomas Stilwell Lamont was vice-chairman of Morgan Guaranty Trust. His famous grandfather, Thomas Williams Lamont Jr., was a partner and then chairman of J.P. Morgan & Co.

But that doesn’t mean that Ned Lamont isn’t a Commie. Here are a few excerpts from the Waterbury paper’s Sunday editorial. It’s titled “Ned Lamont’s True Colors” and I think you can guess what color they are referring to:

“(L)iberal journalists adore him because they share his world view on abortion, homosexual marriage, universal health care, racial quotas, loopy environmentalism and especially the war against Islamic terrorism.

“They are blood brothers, or more accurately, fellow travelers. Just as journalism has become a hornet's nest of socialism (communism not yet perfected), if you shake Mr. Lamont's family tree, a lot of Red apples will fall.

“His great-grandfather, Thomas W. Lamont, was chairman of J.P. Morgan. A wealthy progressive pacifist, he was the sugar daddy for the American Communist Party and other extreme left-wing organizations. His wife, Florence, belonged to such subversive groups as the National Council of American-Soviet Friendship and American Committee for Friendship with the Soviet Union.

“Their son, Corliss Lamont, was an unapologetic Stalinist and atheist. Congress once declared him ‘probably the most persistent propagandist for the Soviet Union to be found anywhere in the United States.’ As national chairman of The Friends of Soviet Russia, he refused to condemn Josef Stalin's show trials in the 1930s. For 22 years, he was director of the American Civil Liberties Union, which has been financed by communists and dedicated to advancing Marxism since its inception and to this day seeks to impose socialism and atheism on America. ...

“According to one recent commentary, Corliss' nephew, Edward M. ‘Ted’ Lamont Sr., embraced liberal-socialism ‘and passed his religious devotion to atheistic materialism along to his son.’ Ned Lamont, in turn, has surrounded himself with people who may be characterized fairly as dedicated socialists and borderline communists. ...

“Corliss Lamont was the only Lamont unashamed to declare his communist sympathies and beliefs publicly, but that doesn't make Thomas, Ted and Ned any less Marxist. Red Ned may label himself a progressive, but when he espouses goals shared by Marx, Lenin, Stalin, Castro, et al., he gives away his true color.”

This account is rife with errors -- consider, for example, the suggestion that J.P. Morgan for decades entrusted its billions to the Communist Party’s “sugar daddy” -- but that’s not the point. Even if everything stated in the editorial were somehow true, it would still be an attempt to tar Lamont because of the views or political activities of long-dead ancestors. If you’re going to play the bloodline game, at least stick to the still-living father -- the Nixon administration official.

Pathetic!

Dude, Shut Up!

And, while you're at it, sit down!

Alan Keyes on embryonic stem cell research:

It is the “moral equivalent of Nazi medical experiments on the inmates of death camps during World War II.” The result, he said, would be “new legions of humans to be enslaved and brutalized.”

No Warrant, No Tap

Thank you!

A federal judge ruled Thursday that the government's warrantless wiretapping program is unconstitutional and ordered an immediate halt to it.

U.S. District Judge Anna Diggs Taylor in Detroit became the first judge to strike down the National Security Agency's program, which she says violates the rights to free speech and privacy as well as the separation of powers enshrined in the Constitution.

July Was Bad!

But there's no civil war going on ...

A bomb ripped through a market in Baghdad's Sadr City on Thursday, another day of carnage in a city under siege by insurgents and people bent on sectarian revenge.

Three people were killed and 27 more were wounded when the explosive detonated in Rashaad market, located in the volatile, densely populated eastern Baghdad Shiite slum of Sadr City, a base of support for anti-U.S. cleric Muqtada al-Sadr.

The strike, one of several across the country, was reported as the Iraqi Health Ministry released new figures that underscore the spike in warfare plaguing Iraq: July was the deadliest month for civilians since the war started in March 2003, figures show.

During the month, 3,438 Iraqis were killed -- 1,855 because of sectarian or political violence and another 1,583 from bombings and shootings. Nearly 3,600 Iraqis were wounded, the official said.

The release of these figures comes on the heels of a U.N. report that said nearly 6,000 people were killed in Iraq in May and June.

Ten Years Later!

They've found the alleged killer of JonBenet Ramsey - in one of the child sex trafficking capitals of the world no less. I just saw this man being escorted by Thai policemen and he told the cameras "I love Jon Benet and her death was an accident." (How do you accidentally leave an eight inch fracture in someone's head)?

In a shocking twist to an already bizarre and riveting mystery, Thai police on Thursday said the man arrested in connection with the 1996 slaying of little JonBenet Ramsey has confessed to the crime.

The suspect, John Mark Karr, 41, told interrogators that he didn't mean to kill the 6-year-old girl, authorities said.

Karr's arrest came nearly a decade after the body of the child beauty queen was found in the basement of her family's sprawling Boulder, Colorado, home -- setting off a media sensation and years of speculation regarding her killer.

The arrest also came less than two months after the little girl's mother died of cancer at age 49.

Karr is a former schoolteacher and an American citizen. He was arrested Wednesday at his apartment in Bangkok.

Lt. Gen. Suwat Thamrongrisakul, chief of Thai immigration, said Karr had confessed to killing JonBenet Ramsey but that he claimed the killing wasn't intentional ...

They arrested this guy in one of the sex trade capitals of the world. Dude was like many other nasty assed Western men travelling to these countries to have sex with children - and I mean young children. I can be as disgusted and revolted as I want but it has just gotten so hard to rant about how hell isn't good enough for these people. There has got to be some kind of twisted hell going on in their souls in order for them to do things like this and best believe there will be some serious hell to pay from the other inmates in whatever jail he lands in. Bring his azz back to the states!

Update: Hold the presses! Wierdo! I am looking at this man on CNN. The story doesn't add up. His ex-wife said he was with her when JonBenet was killed ... in ALABAMA! He looks "crazy!" I still think he is a pedophile but he is only dreaming about being the killer! Lawd! Unless the DNA is a match, they need to put this guy in a padded cell instead of a jail cell!

Go Julia! It's Your Birthday!

I love cooking shows. Before the Food Network was available in my area, I was a PBS addict on Saturday mornings. One of my favorite programs was the one with Jacques Pepin and Julia Child. They had great chemistry and were quite funny! Anyhow, it's her birthday. She's no longer with us but I still catch her antics in the reruns! (click the link for her crepe recipe)

Today is Julia Child's birthday. She was one of the people most responsible for encouraging Americans to cook classic French food at home. I loved watching Julia Child on television. She was the antithesis of the television chefs of today. She wasn't pretty, she wasn't graceful and she wasn't phony. She was the real deal. Her funny voice and sometimes awkward manner made her someone everyone could relate to. She made mistakes and she fixed them right there for everyone to see. She was no Martha Stewart, that's for sure.

Okay, He Is Stupid

Poor baby! He still doesn't get it!

US President George W Bush is concerned about the lack of progress in Iraq and frustrated that the new Iraqi government and the people have not shown greater public support for the American mission.

This was revealed by people who attended a private meeting with Bush at the Pentagon this week.

They said Bush carefully avoided expressing a clear personal view of the new Prime Minister of Iraq, Nuri Kamal al-Maliki.

"I sensed a frustration with the lack of progress on the bigger picture of Iraq generally - that we continue to lose a lot of lives, it continues to sap our budget," one person who attended the meeting told the `New York Times`.

"The President wants the people in Iraq to get more on board to bring success."

More generally, the participants said, the president expressed frustration that Iraqis had not come to appreciate the sacrifices the United States had made in Iraq, and was puzzled as to how a recent anti-American rally in support of Hezbollah in Baghdad could draw such a large crowd.

"I do think he was frustrated about why 10,000 Shiites would go into the streets and demonstrate against the United States," said another person who attended the meeting this week.

The White House would not comment on the details of the discussion which the daily said included Bush`s war cabinet in addition to the outside experts and was part of the government`s efforts to counter criticism that it is out of touch with public opinion.

Stupid Is As Stupid Does

Via Truthdig, this is a recap of Joe Scarborough's show last night. I actually couldn't believe he dared to air this segment or ask this question but it gets to a point where
it is beyond obvious!

Joe Scarborough, of all people, began his program on Tuesday by asking: “Is Bush an ‘idiot?’” To provide context for his question, the MSNBC host let loose with a must-see highlight reel of the President’s assault on language and logic.

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Crooks and Liars:

Lawrence O’Donnell made an interesting statement that Bush is an easy target and probably “the easiest ever at this point”. Fund worked his hardest to defend Bush and even resorted to saying it was the left who made these claims because “they can not argue with his policies”.

Scarborough probably had the most interesting observation when he brought up talked about old clips of when Bush was Governor of Texas and did not make anywhere near the number of mistakes that he does now and said it “seems like he is losing confidence by the day”.

The Servants' Quarters

It's unfortunate that we are still here ...

Conservative New York radio talkshow hothead Bob Grant once said on the air that then-New York mayor David Dinkins (a far more elegant dresser than Grant, by the way) reminded him of a "men's room attendant".

On Imus in the Morning, Imus or one of his crew once joked about the pre-Washington Week in Review Gwen Ifill: "Speaking of reporter Gwen Ifill, he's said, 'Isn't the [New York] Times wonderful? It lets the cleaning lady cover the White House.'"

A week ago, Mickey Kaus's arm candy wrote, "Congresswoman Maxine Waters had parachuted into Connecticut earlier in the week to campaign against [Sen. Joseph I.] Lieberman because he once expressed reservations about affirmative action, without which she would not have a job that didn't involve wearing a paper hat."

And now the cover of the latest Weekly Standard brings us Al Sharpton as a Driving Miss Daisy faithful retainer "who dares not look his master in the eye."

Washroom attendant. Cleaning lady. Cafeteria worker. Chauffeur.

Notice a pattern?

No matter what height of prominence a black person reaches, conservatives will always find a way to reduce him or her to low-paid, low-status, low-skilled caricatured servitude. That's their idea of cutting black personalities down to size and putting them in their place. Whatever uniform they wear, it's still a monkey suit in the eyes and mouths of the white-makes-right contingent, which should make it no surprise that Senator George Allen, adopted son of the Confederacy, would reach back for a race-baiting jibe as his beanball pitch. It's also no surprise that George Allen would be Fred Barnes's kinda guy.

"[T]here's a rich seam of serious thought running underneath the good cheer. Mr. Allen has more thoroughly (and productively) contemplated an array of issues--education, immigration, judicial philosophy, Iraq, Iran, even abortion--than one first supposes. You're fooled by the way he talks, never rushing his words, and by his inelegant presence (he's the only Virginian I know who wears cowboy boots). It's a kind of George W. Bush effect, style overpowering substance. Soon enough, though, substance steps forward."

Fred Barnes wouldn't know a "rich seam of thought" from a river of raw sewage, but let it pass. At the end of his love-letter lunch with Allen, he relays what the mission statement of an Allen presidential campaign would be: "securing our freedom, making sure this is a land of opportunity for all people, and making sure that we preserve our foundational values." I'm going to assume going forward that "foundational values" is one of those conservative code phrases intended to connote the noble white pillars of the old Southern plantation.

The Biggest Loser

Via ISOU, I think this pretty much sums it up.

While the jury is out on whether Israel or Hezbollah attained their war objectives, a quick anecdotal poll of Russian, Chinese and Indian analysts suggests that in the eyes of the wider world the real loser is the United States.

Together with the bloody mess in Iraq, the mess in Lebanon is a set back for American prestige and influence. In India, where President George Bush is more liked than in almost any other Asian country, there is concern that Hezbollah has outwitted him on all counts.

President Bush says Hezbollah has been defeated as it will no longer be a state within a state because south Lebanon will be occupied by non-Hezbollah troops.

In contrast, although Chinese, Russian and Indian analysts hail from very dissimilar countries they are reaching similar conclusions that Hezbollah’s position has been strengthened.

Within Lebanese politics, Hezbollah’s prestige will be so unassailable that its Christian, Sunni and Amal Shiite rivals will not be able to criticize it openly for some time to come. Nor will any Arab government be able to castigate it for fear of angering the street.

Therefore, the most likely prospect is that Hezbollah’s fighters will be integrated into the Lebanese army instead of being asked to disarm. That will make them very influential because of their experience in fighting Israel. Their addition might also make Shiites the overall majority in the army. As such, a mere militia will have access to all the modern panoply, including command and control skills, of a national army.

At the next elections, Hezbollah’s political wing is likely to increase its seats in parliament because it candidates, associated with the heroes who fought Israel, would attract greater voter turnout ...

I'm not really sure what USreal was thinking but it definitely didn't work out as planned (if it was planned with any real skill) the same way Iraq hasn't been working out from the get go. For all of our bombs, we certainly aren't smart about war. We've all but handed a good portion of Iraq over to Iran. Now we've given a democratic Lebanon over to Hezbollah. Bushie, you're doing a heck of a job!

Just Plain Nasty!

Dis-gust-ing!

In a case that shocked authorities in a small western Michigan city, a man stands accused of striking a deal for sex not only with the 14-year-old daughter of his girlfriend - who police say offered the girl to him while she recovered from surgery - but with his own 12-year-old daughter.

"I've never seen anything like this before. Parents aren't supposed to do something like this," Calvin Mahan, a detective with the Muskegon Heights police, said Friday.

Because the Detroit Free Press does not publish the names of the alleged victims of sex crimes, the man and woman are not being identified to protect the identities of the two children.

According to authorities, the 37-year-old man's girlfriend persuaded her daughter to sign a contract obligating the then-14-year-old girl to have sex with him in exchange for clothing and body piercings. Police said the woman was worried the man would dump her while she was recovering from tummy tuck surgery.

Authorities said the mother, daughter and the man all signed the contract. The man and the girl allegedly had sex about 20 times from June 6 to July 15, during which time she turned 15 years old.

"Basically, mom was pimping out her daughter," Mahan said.

On Friday, Mahan said authorities also learned that the man had given his own daughter - who had been staying with him after living with her biological mother - packs of cigarettes for sex. According to the Muskegon County Prosecutor's Office, the man had sex with his daughter from sometime in November of last year to July 15.

In the case involving his daughter, the man is charged with six counts of first-degree criminal sexual conduct with a child under age 13; in the other case, he is charged with six counts of third-degree criminal sexual conduct with a child 13-15 years old.

If convicted on the charges involving his daughter, the man could be sentenced to life in prison; for those involving his daughter's girlfriend, he could serve up to 15 years in prison if convicted.

Meanwhile, the girl's mother has been charged with three counts of aiding and abetting third-degree criminal sexual conduct with a child 13-15 years old. She was freed on a $25,000 bond after being arraigned Tuesday. She could face 15 years in prison if convicted.

Her children, including a son and another daughter, were removed from her home.

"It's outrageous to think that a mother could sign a contract for her underage daughter to have sex with an adult male," said Muskegon County Prosecutor Tony Tague.

Until Open Your Mouth And Prove It

What really kills me about these scrubbed up rednecked polticians is that they think they can say anything and explain it away or offer a half-baked apology. What they manage to do is get their racist message out to their consituents and come off looking clean because they claim they didn't really mean it.

At a campaign rally in southwest Virginia on Friday, Allen repeatedly called a volunteer for Democrat James Webb "macaca." During the speech in Breaks, near the Kentucky border, Allen began by saying that he was "going to run this campaign on positive, constructive ideas" and then pointed at S.R. Sidarth in the crowd.

"This fellow here, over here with the yellow shirt, macaca, or whatever his name is. He's with my opponent. He's following us around everywhere. And it's just great," Allen said, as his supporters began to laugh. After saying that Webb was raising money in California with a "bunch of Hollywood movie moguls," Allen said, "Let's give a welcome to macaca, here. Welcome to America and the real world of Virginia." Allen then began talking about the "war on terror."

Depending on how it is spelled, the word macaca could mean either a monkey that inhabits the Eastern Hemisphere or a town in South Africa. In some European cultures, macaca is also considered a racial slur against African immigrants, according to several Web sites that track ethnic slurs.

"The kid has a name," Webb communications director Kristian Denny Todd said of Sidarth, who is a Virginia native born in Fairfax County. "This is trying to demean him, to minimize him as a person."

Todd added that the use of macaca, whatever it means, and the reference welcoming Sidarth to America were clearly intended to make him uncomfortable.

Reached Monday evening, Allen said that the word had no derogatory meaning for him and that he was sorry. "I would never want to demean him as an individual. I do apologize if he's offended by that. That was no way the point."

Asked what macaca means, Allen said: "I don't know what it means." He said the word sounds similar to "mohawk," a term that his campaign staff had nicknamed Sidarth because of his haircut. Sidarth said his hairstyle is a mullet -- tight on top, long in the back.

Allen said by the comment welcoming him to America, he meant: "Just to the real world. Get outside the Beltway and get to the real world."

There was absolutely no excuse to say anything like that to anyone. But I'll bet that George Allen doesn't think he's anymore racist than Mel Gibson is anti-Semitic.

What Home(s)?

I really hope these people have homes to return to.

Lebanese civilians defied an Israeli travel ban and streamed back to their homes in war-ravaged areas Monday after a U.N. cease-fire halted fighting in the monthlong conflict between Israel and Hezbollah that has claimed more than 900 lives. Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert said he took sole responsibility for the offensive.

In a statement to parliament, Olmert said the cease-fire agreement eliminated the "state within a state" run by Hezbollah and restored Lebanon's sovereignty in the south.

He promised to do everything he could to win the return of two Israeli soldiers captured by Hezbollah in a cross-border raid July 12, the even that triggered the monthlong war.

Olmert also sent condolences to those killed in the violence.

Israeli forces fired on two Hezbollah fighters in southern Lebanon, hours after the guns fell silent, highlighting the tensions that could unravel the peace plan.

For the first time in a month, no Hezbollah rockets were fired into northern Israel; still, the Israeli government advised residents who left the area to wait before returning home.

Israel Killing Christians

I'm still totally dumb struck by Israel's heinous attack on the sovereign nation of Lebanon so I'll probably just be quoting Juan Cole from Informed Comment. He can still talk about it and our idiot President.

Bush is on vacation, his favorite place to be during a major crisis. The August retreat is the only open admission he makes that Cheney and Rumsfeld are actually running the country, and he just doesn't need to be in his office. The only difference between his stonewalling of Lebanon and the way he let New Orleans drown is that he has put away the banjo this summer, at least in public view. He had someone tie a necktie on him and stopped manically clearing brush for long enough to come out with Condi and hold a press conference. He lied, saying that no one wants to see the violence continue. He wants to see the violence continue. Otherwise he would insist on a ceasefire. You see, if you don't have a ceasefire, the violence continues. If you oppose a ceasefire, you are saying you want the violence to continue. He does.

Then he tried to explain the war in Lebanon by saying this,

'They try to spread their jihadist message -- a message I call, it's totalitarian in nature -- Islamic radicalism, Islamic fascism, they try to spread it as well by taking the attack to those of us who love freedom. '

There are many problems with this passage.

The first is that the Israelis are not confining themselves to bombing Muslim radicals. They dropped 3000 bombs on Aitaroun in a single day. They are leveling the towns of the south altogether. They are hitting people who are not Muslim fascists.

In fact, they are hitting Christian areas such as Jounieh.

Bush, as usual, only seems to have cursory knowledge of what is going on. Now he is vacationing again, as he always does, when the world is in crisis. Clearly this cannot be just about Hezbollah. As with the non-threat in Iraq, the Israelis/Americans seem hell bent on destroying another government, not a "terrorist" group, who have little power to defend themselves. I'm just too disgusted and afraid of the long term ramifications to talk about it.

Christian Zionists Have Too Much Clout

For the love of G-d. I wish these wackos would go away!

For some time now, Christian fundamentalists have served as Middle East consultants to the National Security Council. Most recently, the White House has met with a group called Christians United for Israel, whose members believe that supporing Israel's expansionist policies represents a "biblical imperative." Led by John Hagee, known for his televangelism, CUFI's members are interested in the U.S.'s adopting a more confrontational posture with Iran and in withdrawing all aid to Palestinians.

"The coming nuclear showdown with Iran is a certainty," says Hagee. A loyal friend of the Israeli right, Hagee has raised over $8 million for Israeli social service projects. His man in Washington is Sen. Arlen Specter's former chief of staff, David Brog, who helps carry out CUFI policy, handles public relations, and--though Jewish--represents Christian Zionist in meetings with White House staff.

One of Brog's more interesting theses is that Christian anti-Semitism no longer exists and "is a bygone phenomenon that died the moment the Allies seized Hitler's bunker." To support this belief, he emphasizes the outpouring of Christian evangelical support for Israel. At the same time, Brog has to carry the baggage of Hagee's outspoken belief that Israel will be the site of the Rapture. Only recently, Hagee ally Janet Parshall announced, when the Israel-Hezbollah conflict began, that "These are the times we've been waiting for. This is straight out of a Sunday School lesson." Somehow, the two men have developed a public relations balance in which Hagee and his people can go on about the Rapture and Brog can dismiss this talk as something like the ramblings of an ecccentric uncle, and concentrate on promoting the organization's total support for Israel.

Is Iraq Over With?

While all eyes are fixated on the total decimation of yet another Arab country by Israel (and America by proxy), Iraq is crumbling quickly and at least Juan Cole thinks it
mau al be over.

Borzou Daragahi of the LA Times argues that the plan of Abdul Aziz al-Hakim for a 9-province provincial confederacy in the Shiite south of Iraq is tantamount to a partition plan. He reports that Shiite politicians are increasingly talking about the need for such a partition, and are thinking of the Tigris as a border that could demarcate Sunni Arab West Baghdad from Shiite East Baghdad. (Shiites should be careful, since this plan implies that they would lose Kadhimiyah). Al-Hakim clearly envisages deploying the Badr Corps along the resulting Sunni-Shiite border to stop the infiltration of bombers, just as the Kurdish Peshmerga functions as the army of the Kurdistan Regional Government. Daragahi is correct that the Shiites of the south envy the Kurds' regional unity and semi-autonomy.

The Sunni Arabs will never, ever accept being reduced to a minority with no access to Iraq's oil resources (which are mainly in the Shiite south and the Kurdish north), and any such partition is a recipe for a long drawn out civil war.

I have a sinking feeling that Iraq is over with, and that we're just standing around watching the train wreck unfold.

Basra municipal government has collapsed to the point where the garbage is not being collected, and diseases are spreading. Al-Zaman says that Prime Minister Maliki formally withdrew from the Basra governing council the security portfolio.

The August GQ carries a very important piece by Jeffrey Gettleman of the NYT on how security in Baghdad has collapsed in the past year and a half.

The Heart of The Problem

I saw Queen Noor of Jordan on Larry King Live one day last week. In the midst of all that is going on, she reminded people what it at the heart of the problem in the Middle East. As an ally to Israel, we can get totally self-righteous about their right to exist. But the fact remains that their existence came at the loss and expense of others - others who haven't forgotten.

QUEEN NOOR: I also believe that previous administrations, because of their direct engagement with and many of them attempted to be far more balanced in their approach to both sides of the story, because both sides have stories of tragedy, of fear, of generations that have built up a great deal of distrust and anger, and I think there is one example, which is, because I keep going back, as so many others do, to believing that the heart of this problem is the Arab, the larger Arab-Israeli conflict which started in 1948 with the expulsion of over 700,000 Palestinians from their homes, as the state of Israel was created. Those refugees have never been addressed properly, nor the ones that were forced from their homes over the next several decades, '67. There are now six million outside. So the annexation of, the occupation and annexation of Arab lands by Israel, the refugee issue and the prisoners that are held in contravention of international law --

KING: You're therefore blaming Israel for this?

QUEEN NOOR: I'm saying that those are issues that lay, are the root cause and what the militant groups like Hamas and Hezbollah, who also have political roles, were elected in legitimate elections in their communities, in Palestinian territories and in Lebanon, what drives the militancy and what would sap all the energy and justification for this militancy, would be a resolution of those core issues, that are a driving force of the militants.

She's No Lisa Ling

The View has had an odd dynamic since Star made her grand exit from the show. Elisabeth has been her regular doe eyed, naive, right winged self and, depending upon the guest co-host, has held her own - or not. I'm not really sure what was going on with either her tirade yesterday or the subsequent reaction by Barbara Walters.

It's rare that The View's resident pretty-but-dumb blonde Elisabeth Hasselbeck says more than 3 seconds worth of right-wing drivel, but when she does, it's out of passion. Today the ladies (with special guest co-host Lisa Loeb) discussed the over-the-counter availability of morning-after pill Plan B, and of course this sent young Hasselbeck into a tizzy of earnest "life begins at penetration" arguments, getting herself so worked up that her voice slipped into the trying-not-to-cry quiver.

This is my thing. Everyoone knows which side Elisabeth is coming from even if she is misinformed (and her view of the morning after pill is inaccurate because she seemed to be equating it with abortion. She's not breeding continuously so I assume she is using contraception). She got into it with Joy and the interaction seemed normal. I was a bit surprised that Barbara interjected and seemed to almost scold Elisabeth. Something is going on. I'm not sure how Elisabeth will last through too many shows with Rosie but it seems like there is some underlying tension between she, Barbara and Joy already. She's not my favorite and she's not the brightest crayon in the box but I tolerate her for diversity's sake. It doesn't seem as though her co-hosts do.

Putin and Chavez Sitting In A Tree

Since we seem to have such a long list of countries we are shunning, it's no stretch that those countries are beginning to make friends elsewhere. Hugo Chavez, despite his accusations that Bush is out to get him, certainly isn't letting any grass grow under his feet as far as making deals with other would be powers ...

Russia signed a £1.6bn arms deal with President Hugo Chávez of Venezuela today, risking a confrontation with the US, which has imposed an arms embargo on the South American country.

The outspoken Venezuelan president, who has claimed that America wants to assassinate him and pledged cheap heating fuel for London's poor, also told reporters in Moscow that his country could develop its own nuclear programme.

"Maybe some day we will start using nuclear energy," he said, according to Interfax. He did not specify when or how he might obtain nuclear power, but his ambitions will rile a Bush administration already deeply concerned by Iran's nuclear programme. Moscow has agreed to build nuclear power plants for Tehran, despite Washington's claim that the scheme is a front for a nuclear weapons programme.

After Mr Chávez's meeting with Vladimir Putin, Russia's state arms exporter Rosobornexport said it would sell 24 military planes and 53 attack helicopters to the south American state in one of a series of deals between the countries worth an estimated total of £1.6bn. Moscow has recently stepped up arms sales to Venezuela, saying last month that it would license the AK47 rifle for production in Caracas.

After their meeting Mr Chávez told Mr Putin: "Russia has stretched out its hand to us in the face of international pressure, and even an embargo that was to be imposed on us. It gives our soldiers a special spirit of firmness when we hand them Kalashnikov rifles that replace old 1940s guns."

He said that when two Russian-made Sukhoi jets flew over their independence day parade on July 5, "the entire people had a sense of gratitude".

In an attempt to soften the blow of such deals for Washington, Mr Putin said that cooperation between Moscow and Caracas "is not directed against other states", but added: "Russia will be a secure partner for Venezuela."

He said that Russian investment into Venezuela could reach billions of dollars, while expressing admiration for the country's economic growth rate of 8%. The two men also announced that the Russian oil firm Lukoil would build a gas pipeline in Venezuela's south and drill for oil near the Orinoco river.

Mr Chávez again launched a vitriolic attack on the United States. "After almost 200 years, we can say that the United States was designed to fill the entire world with poverty as if in the name of freedom," he said according to Interfax.

"The United States' empire is the greatest threat which exists in the world today. This is a senseless, blind and dumb giant, which does not know the world, does not know human rights, and does not know anything about humanity, culture, conscience, or consciousness."

He said the "winds of war" were blowing in the Middle East and were a "product of hegemony and imperialistic aspirations, which reveal Washington's bid for power over the whole planet" ...

Will The Real Mel Gibson Please Stand Up?

As Mel Gibson enters detox, Rabbi Boteach weighs in on Gibson's fall off the wagon and his legacy in Hollywood. As did I when I first posted on this story, the Rabbi questions who the real Mel Gibson really is.

The Talmud famously says that a man is known in three ways. What he says when he is drunk, what he says when he is angry, and what he spends his money on. On all three counts, it appears that Mel Gibson has sadly shown his true colors. Upon getting arrested for drunk driving, in his inebriated state, he allegedly said something to the effect that “f—ing Jews are responsible for all the world’s wars.” In his anger, he asked the arresting deputy if he himself was Jewish. And, of course, he spent $25 million dollars of his own money arguing that the Jews killed Jesus. Well, there you have it. Drink, anger, and money all lead Mel Gibson to alleged acts of anti-Semitism.

Those of us who strongly opposed “The Passion of the Christ” as defamatory of Jews should feel no sense of vindication now that Mel has shown what he really thinks of Jews. On the contrary, this story is a tragedy all around. Who would have thought that in Hollywood of all places there could be personalities so filled with Jew-hatred? The tragedy is compounded by the fact that Mel Gibson largely established his career in the role of a white detective who has the warmest possible relationship with his black partner in the “Lethal Weapon” movies. Turns out that all along good ol’ Mel was a bigot.

Not that we should have been all that surprised, given the Holocaust-denying remarks Mel’s father has always made publicly, with Mel saying in his defense, “My father never lied to me.”

Still, there are a number of things to be learned from this sad event. Firstly, all those who defended “The Passion of the Christ” as a benign movie about the death of Jesus ought to do some real soul-searching. This defamatory movie repeated the oldest and most destructive lie ever told, that the Jews killed god. Millions of Jews throughout history have been murdered over this lie. And yet, when a modern movie appeared portraying the Jews as bloodthirsty and desperate to see a dead Jesus, it became one of the biggest box office successes of all time. Worse, so many of our evangelical brothers and sisters promoted the movie as a modern Christian triumph. Churches around the country who normally love and support Israel rushed to show the movie to their flocks, as if doing so were a sacrament. They defended Mel Gibson especially as having made a film that promoted Christianity rather than defamed Jews. I hope that they will now reconsider their attitude toward the film and stop showing it at churches, as it perpetuates the stereotype of Jews as perfidious Judases.

Read the entire article ...

Stuck On Tar Baby

Didn't we just go through this? How dense can you be or are you just not paying attention? Why is it that "tar baby" is becoming such a popular term for white folks to use yet they have no idea that it has negative racial connotations. I posted about this when Tony Snow said it and basically blew it off. Why are we at this place again with another high profile politician?

Gov. Mitt Romney has apologized for referring to the city's troubled highway commuter tunnel project as a "tar baby" during a fundraiser with Iowa Republicans, saying he did not know anyone would be offended by the term some consider a racial epithet.

In a speech Saturday, Romney, a Republican considering a run for president in 2008, acknowledged he took a big political risk in taking control of the project after a fatal tunnel ceiling collapse, but said inaction would have been even worse.

"The best thing politically would be to stay as far away from that tar baby as I can," he told a crowd of about 100 supporters in Ames, Iowa.

Black leaders were outraged at his use of the term, which dates to the 19th century Uncle Remus stories by journalist Joel Chandler Harris. The term refers to a doll made of tar that traps Br'er Rabbit, the main characters in the series of stories. It has come to be known as a way of describing a sticky mess — and has been used as a derogatory term for a black person.

"Tar baby is a totally inappropriate phrase in the 21st century," said Larry Jones, a black Republican and civil rights activist.

"He thinks he's presidential timber," Jones said. "But all he's shown us is arrogance."

Romney's spokesman, Eric Fehrnstrom, said the governor was describing "a sticky situation."

"He was unaware that some people find the term objectionable and he's sorry if anyone's offended," Fehrnstrom said.

White House spokesman Tony Snow sparked similar criticism in May when he used the term in response to a question about government surveillance.