POOR LITTLE KARL

White House chief political strategist Karl Rove threw a hissy fit when protesters targeted his house, calling the Secret Service.

According to the Washington Post, one of the organizers, Emira Palacios:

said that Rove was "very upset" and was "yelling in our faces" and that Rove told them "he hoped we were proud to make his 14-year-old and 10-year-old cry."

A White House spokesman said one of the children was a neighbor.

Palacios, trembling and in tears herself, said, "He is very offended because we dared to come here. We dared to come here because he dared to ignore us. I'm sorry we disturbed his children, but our children are disturbed every day.

"He also said, 'Don't ever dare to come back,' " Palacios said. "We will, if he continues to ignore us."

Known for race-baiting politics, scurrilous attacks on political opponents and one of the prime suspects in leaking the name of a CIA operative to journalists to discredit a Bush critic, Rove knows unfair.

Poor little guy.

[Thanks to my cousin Ed for this one.]

CAUGHT BY A SCREWBALL

Not that truth seems to matter to the American electorate, but the Los Angeles reports that the source of information that Iraq purportedly had mobile weapons labs came from a source the U.S. never even interviewed.

The Times writes:

The Bush administration's prewar claims that Saddam Hussein had built a fleet of trucks and railroad cars to produce anthrax and other deadly germs were based chiefly on information from a now-discredited Iraqi defector code-named "Curveball," according to current and former intelligence officials.

U.S. officials never had direct access to the defector and didn't even know his real name until after the war. ...

Based largely on his account, President Bush and his aides repeatedly warned of the shadowy germ trucks, dubbed "Winnebagos of Death" or "Hell on Wheels" in news accounts, and they became a crucial part of the White House case for war — including Secretary of State Colin L. Powell's dramatic presentation to the U.N. Security Council just weeks before the war.

Thank goodness no one has yet come up with a "Volkswagen Beetle of Inconvenience."

With such charismatic leaders as Phil T. Rich, how could anyone not want to join Billionaires For Bush?

[Thanks to my cousin Ed for this one.]

CONDO-SLEAZE-A RICE

National security adviser Condoleezza Rice, one of the architects of the Bush adminstration's post Sept. 11 plans and chief propagandist, still refuses to testify publicly in front of a federal panel. Instead, she concentrates her vitriol on former Reagan, Bush I, Clinton, Bush II anti-terrorism adviser Richard Clark, who in damning testimony, admitted failures on the government's part in protecting Americans from attacks.

All she could say is, "He needs to get his story straight," while outing him as the official who put a positive spin on Bush's policy for reporters in 2002.

The New York Times writes:

In addition, even some Republicans questioned the wisdom of the White House involving itself in such a public and muscular campaign to discredit a critic who was, by his account, a Republican who served in Mr. Bush's own administration.

"While it was their intent to undermine Clark's credibility, it will be interesting to see if their credibility now comes into question more than his," said Don Sipple, a Republican consultant. "I saw the parade of the victim's families on the morning shows who all applauded him. He was the first person who took any responsibility. What that does is underscore his perception as a truth teller. I think the American people are paying attention to this episode."

Furthermore, it is the height of hypocrisy to have Rice giving TV interviews to spread the administration's propaganda -- and make herself look good -- while refusing to testify UNDER OATH about lapses in the government's role to foresee the attacks.

If Rice were part of a Democratic administration, she'd have had her head handed to her on a stick by now.

YADDA YADDA YADDA

In response to a Bush campaign spokesman characterizing John Kerry's experience in Vietnam as "yadda, yadda, yadda," Kerry spokeswoman Stephanie Cutter had this to say:

"As much as they hate it, this President's record is what's on trial. Watching George Bush destroy this nation's economy is just as painful as watching Elaine dance. Like Seinfeld, this Administration's record is a show about 'nothing.' Only difference is Seinfeld will have been on the air longer."

Dick Cheney does bear an uncomfortable resemblance to George Costanza.

NO CHILD LEFT BEHIND?

Thanks to my cousin Ed for this one.

Dumbya heads to Beantown today in order to raise more cash.

The Boston Globe writes that he'll "swoop into Boston for a quick fund-raiser this afternoon that could net his campaign $1 million and also draw several thousand protesters, force the closure of a school, and disrupt traffic near the Park Plaza Hotel."

Maybe Bush in his educational pledges actually meant: No millionaire child left behind.

MEA CULPA

The sad, sobering comedy of errors that comprised the Bush administration's ignorance of all things Clinton -- including anti-terrorism efforts -- hit a particularly dour note with the testimony of Richard Clarke, a registered Republican and presidential terrorism advisor who quit two years into Dumbya's tenure.

The straight-talking, strident Clarke was the only one to apologize to the families of Sept. 11 victims:

"Your government failed you, those entrusted with protecting you failed you and I failed you. We tried hard, but that doesn't matter because we failed. And for that failure, I would ask -- once all the facts are out -- for your understanding and for your forgiveness."

Clarke has been the only one who hasn't tried to aggrandize himself or his efforts in front of the Sept. 11 commission.

Clarke came under repeated charges -- outright and implied -- that he was acting in a partisan manner. The Washington Post writes of the face-off with Republican commissioner John Lehman:

Clarke was ready for that challenge. "Let me talk about partisanship here, since you raised it," he said, noting that he registered as a Republican in 2000 and served President Ronald Reagan. "The White House has said that my book is an audition for a high-level position in the Kerry campaign," Clarke said. "So let me say here, as I am under oath, that I will not accept any position in the Kerry administration, should there be one."

When Clarke finished his answer, there was a long pause, and the gallery was silent. Lehman smiled slightly and nodded. He had no further questions.

LIBERTY AND JUSTICE FOR ALL?

It's such an emotional issue that one wonders what good could possibly come out of raising the issue other than to incense the so-called religious right and kill-all-heathens conservatives, but the case before the Supreme Court regarding the words "under God" in the Pledge of Allegiance is a heroic, if sisyphean, effort.

In a scene that sounds like an Al Pacino courtroom thriller, Michael Newdow passionately argued his case before eight of the nine justices.

The New York Times describes it as such:

Dr. Newdow, a nonpracticing lawyer who makes his living as an emergency room doctor, may not win his case. In fact, justices across the ideological spectrum appeared to be searching for reasons he should lose, either on jurisdictional grounds or on the merits. But no one who managed to get a seat in the courtroom is likely ever to forget his spell-binding performance.

That includes the justices, whom Dr. Newdow engaged in repartee that, while never disrespectful, bore a closer resemblance to dinner-table one-upmanship than to formal courtroom discourse. For example, when Dr. Newdow described "under God" as a divisive addition to the pledge, Chief Justice William H. Rehnquist asked him what the vote in Congress had been 50 years ago when the phrase was inserted.

The vote was unanimous, Dr. Newdow said.

"Well, that doesn't sound divisive," the chief justice observed.

Dr. Newdow shot back, "That's only because no atheist can get elected to public office."

The courtroom audience broke into applause, an exceedingly rare event that left the chief justice temporarily nonplussed. He appeared to collect himself for a moment, and then sternly warned the audience that the courtroom would be cleared "if there's any more clapping."

The Associated Press writes:

"My daughter's going to be able to walk around and say that `my father helped uphold the Constitution of the United States,'" he responded as a rapt, packed courtroom watched an unusually passionate argument in a case that will decide whether millions of public schoolchildren may continue pledging allegiance to one nation "under God."

A belief in a higher deity is not the issue. The point is that the Founding Fathers -- some of them atheist themselves -- wrote protections separating church and state precisely to prevent a tyranny of the majority.

I'm not holding my breath on this one, but Newdow is absolutely correct.

GOOD TIME-WASTER

The Earl Vickers Museum of Conceptual Art provides such gleeful items such as a breakfast cereal manufacturer's response to a customer's letter, written in crayon, regarding the spelling of "Alpha-Bits."

Another useful feature is Things Other People Accomplished
When They Were Your Age.

Sigh.

OH, HELEN

Perennial tough-guy of the White House Press corps, Helen Thomas mouths off in an interview and says something most people don't necessarily realize.

"People think talk show [hosts] are journalists, but they’re not," she tells Seattle Weekly. "They’re getting just plain opinion. I think people are much better served when we get a straight news story, even though I’m a columnist now. My opinion isn’t worth anything.

"I wrote for 57 years for UPI. I was never accused of slant. I wrote dull copy."

BALL AND CHAIN BLOG

This recommendation comes from my friend and occasional blog reader, Deborah in Austin, Texas.

Things My Girlfriend And I Have Argued About

Deborah writes: "It's written by and Englishman and it's about he and
his girlfriend's relationship. Any of us who are, or who ever have, been in a relationship will totally relate. It's set up rather badly, but just scroll down to the bottom for some great faq's about the site.
here's an example of an entry:

Our sink is blue and we're not talking about it. It happened over a week ago; I was leaning over the sink, brushing my teeth, when I noticed that there was a sort of lazuline patina that had seeped over most of the surface. Margret hasn't mentioned anything about
this. Why she hasn't is that she's obviously tried to clean the sink with, well, I don't know, some fluid used for stripping entrenched cerriped colonies from the hulls of submarines or something (they were probably offering three bottles of the stuff for the price of two at Aldi). She is waiting for me to mention it. But I am a wily fox, and will be doing nothing of the sort. I'm no wet-behind-the-ears, naive
youth anymore, not by a looooong way, and I can perfectly see the spiked pit the seemingly innocent words, 'Did you know the sink's blue' are covering. It would go - precisely - like this:

Me: Did you know the sink's blue?

Margret: Yes. I did. I used a jungle exfoliant produced by the Taiwanese military to clean it, and it discoloured the surface.

Me: Oooooooo. K.

Margret: Well maybe, just maybe, if you cleaned the sink once in a while...

You see what she did there? Now I'm facing a whole day of 'When did you last...?' Well, not this canny fellow - not this time, my friends.

Our sink is blue and we're not talking about it.

McCAIN DEFENDS KERRY

Independent-minded Republican Sen. John McCain of Arizona made headlines today for having the temerity to defend Democrat John Kerry against charges he is weak on defense policy.

"No, I do not believe that he is, quote, weak on defense," McCain said.

McCain denies it's sour grapes from losing the 2000 GOP nomination to a shrub and adds quite a poignant piece of political commentary, saying he decries "this negativism that's going on on both sides. The American people don't need it, and the end result will be lower voter turnout, particularly amongst younger Americans."

An original, well-spoken thought? No wonder he's persona non grata at the White House.

KILLING THE MESSENGER

"I feel like political roadkill," Karen Ryan tells the Columbia Journalism Review in a piece about how she's taking heat for being successful at her job.

Ryan happens to own a public relations firm in Washington, D.C., that has produced video segments in which she pitches products or Bush propaganda.

The problem is that literally hundreds of TV news programs have run these "reports," and for this, she's been taking a beating.

But the real blame is on the so-called journalists who run these segments because it means less work for them and ready-packaged information for their viewers.

CRIMES OF 'PASSION'

A Georgia couple were arrested after their argument about "The Passion of the Christ" turned violent. The husband and wife were charged with simple battery.

So much for loving one's neighbor, spouse or whatever.

Thanks to my cousin Ed for pointing this one out, as well as the story about the Maine man who tried to commit suicide by nailing himself to a cross.

Apparently, he couldn't figure out how to hammer with a hand that was nailed down.

No, really.

BUSH'S RECORD IN OFFICE

This one came from my Aussie friend Helen in San Francisco. It's good to keep in mind. Feel free to disseminate at will.

I attacked and took over 2 countries.

I spent the U.S. surplus and bankrupted the US Treasury.

I shattered the record for the biggest annual deficit in history (not easy).

I set an economic record for the most personal bankruptcies filed in any 12-month period.

I set all-time record for the biggest drop in the history of the stock market.

I am the first president in decades to execute a federal prisoner.

In my first year in office I set the all-time record for most days on vacation by any president in U.S. history (tough to beat my dad's, but I did).

After taking the entire month of August off for vacation, I presided over the worst security failure in U.S. history.

I set the record for most campaign fund raising trips by any president in U.S. history.

In my first two years in office over 2 million Americans lost their jobs.

I cut unemployment benefits for more out-of-work Americans than any other president in U.S. history.

I set the all-time record for most real estate foreclosures in a 12-monthperiod.

I appointed more convicted criminals to administration positions than any president in U.S. history.

I set the record for the fewest press conferences of any president, since the advent of TV.

I signed more laws and executive orders amending the Constitution than any other U.S. president in history.

I presided over the biggest energy crises in U.S. history and refused to intervene when corruption was revealed.

I cut health care benefits for war veterans.

I set the all-time record for most people worldwide to simultaneously take to the streets to protest me (15 million people), shattering the record for protest against any person in the history of mankind.

I dissolved more international treaties than any president in U.S. history.

I've made my presidency the most secretive and unaccountable of any in U.S. history.

Members of my cabinet are the richest of any administration in U.S. history. (The poorest multimillionaire, Condoleeza Rice, has a Chevron oil tanker named after her.)

I am the first president in U.S. history to have all 50 states of the Union simultaneously struggle against bankruptcy.

I presided over the biggest corporate stock market fraud in any market in any country in the history of the world.

I am the first president in U.S. history to order a U.S. attack AND military occupation of a sovereign nation, and I did so against the will of the United Nations and the vast majority of the international community.

I have created the largest government department bureaucracy in the history of the United States, called the "Bureau of Homeland Security" (only one letter away from BS).

I set the all-time record for biggest annual budget spending increases, more than any other president in U.S. history (Ronnie was tough to beat, but I did it!!).

I am the first president in U.S. history to compel the United Nations remove the U.S. from the Human Rights Commission.

I am the first president in U.S. history to have the United Nations remove the U.S. from the Elections Monitoring Board.

I removed more checks and balances, and have the least amount of congressional oversight than any presidential administration in U.S. history.

I rendered the entire United Nations irrelevant. I withdrew from the World Court of Law.

I refused to allow inspectors access to US prisoners of war and by default no longer abide by the Geneva Conventions.

I am the first president in U.S. history to refuse United Nations election inspectors access during the 2002 U.S. elections.

I am the all-time U.S. (and world) record holder for most corporate campaign donations.

The biggest lifetime contributor to my campaign, who is also one of my best friends, presided over one of the largest corporate bankruptcy frauds in world history (Kenneth Lay, former CEO of Enron Corporation).

I spent more money on polls and focus groups than any president in U.S. history.

I am the first president to run and hide when the U.S. came under attack (and then lied, saying the enemy had the code to Air Force 1)

I am the first U.S. president to establish a secret shadow government.

I took the world's sympathy for the U.S. after 9/11, and in less than a year made the U.S. the most resented country in the world (possibly the biggest diplomatic failure in U.S. and world history).

I am the first U.S. president in history to have a majority of the people of Europe (71%) view my presidency as the biggest threat to world peace and stability.

I changed U.S. policy to allow convicted criminals to be awarded government contracts.

I set the all-time record for the number of administration appointees who violated U.S. law by not selling their huge investments in corporations bidding for gov't contracts.

I have removed more freedoms and civil liberties for Americans than any other president in U.S. history.

I entered office with the strongest economy in U.S. history and in less than two years turned every single economic category heading straight down.

RECORDS AND REFERENCES: I have at least one conviction for drunk driving in Maine (Texas driving record has been erased and is not available).

I was AWOL from the National Guard and deserted the military during time of war.

I refuse to take a drug test or even answer any questions about drug use. (wink,wink)

All records of my tenure as governor of Texas have been spirited away to my fathers library, sealed in secrecy and unavailable for public view.

All records of any SEC investigations into my insider trading or bankrupt companies are sealed in secrecy and unavailable for public view.

All minutes of meetings of any public corporation for which I served on the board are sealed in secrecy and unavailable for public view.

Any records or minutes from meetings I (or my VP) attended regarding public energy policy are sealed in secrecy and unavailable for public review.

With Love,
GEORGE W. BUSH
The White House, Washington, DC

Note: this information should be useful to voters in the 2004 election. Circulate to as many citizens you think would be helped to be reminded about this record

RUMSFELD 'FACES' THE LIE

For once, a journalist throws Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld's lie back in his face.

Here is the actual video segment.

Amazingly, it's a year and a half of war in Iraq and 500-plus U.S. deaths later.

Better late than never, I suppose.

WILD-MAN, CARLSON TUCKER

Conservative, bow tie-wearing CNN commentator Tucker Carlson apparently let loose while talking with gossip columnism Liz Smith recently. Thanks to my cousin Emilio for this one.

Liz Smith reports in her gossip column today that Tucker Carlson, the
young conservative in the bow-tie on CNN's Crossfire, loosened up a bit with an Elle reporter and made these delightful comments about his views on women and sex. (We were going to make one of these "quote of the day," but who could choose just one?)

Carlson: "One area of liberal phenomenon I support is female
bi-sexuality -- this apparent increased willingness of girls to bring along a friend. That's a pretty good thing."

What do women want, Elle asks Tucker? "They want to be listened to, protected and amused. And they want to be spanked vigorously every one in a while."

If you could be a woman, Tucker, what woman would you be? "[Elizabeth Birch] formerly of the Human Rights Campaign because you'd be presiding over an organization of thousands of lesbians, some of them quite good-looking."

Who is Carlson's "guilty fantasy bedmate"? "Hillary. Every time I see
her I think I could, you know, help ... She seems tense." Which female conservative pundit would Tucker prefer, Laura Ingraham or Ann Coulter?

"Laura would be less likely to hurt you. With Ann you could get bruised on the angles."

It is best not to argue with a woman, Tucker says. "Most of the time you can beat a woman in an argument. But what do you win? Nothing. You get short-term pleasure followed by a lot of pain."

He also says, "I like women." To that, Liz Smith replies: "Well, good
luck getting them to reciprocate your Neanderthal feeling, kid."

Not only has the Bush administration profited handsomely from creating a culture of fear in the post-Sept. 11 era, but now at least one Cabinet official actually owns something from one of the attacks.

Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld kept pieces of the World Trade Center and the Pentagon on his desk.

Mind you, other people such as sanitation workers and contractors found in possession of such items have been prosecuted.

One reader commented that Bush's real Sept. 11 souvenier was his 90 percent approval rating.

Let's hope White House stationery is the next souvenier.

BRUNO STRIP

If I had my own comic strip, it might look like this, except the protagonist is the wrong gender.

BUSH'S FLIP FLOPS

Thanks to my cousin Em for passing this one along, highlighting how Dumbya's campaign ploy is akin to the pot calling the kettle black.

http://www.dailykos.com/story/2004/3/7/213753/1954

You've heard by now that the GOP attack line on Kerry is that he "flip-flops." Daily Kos provides a nifty rundown (still in the making) of vacillations of the true flip-flopper in the presidential race: George W. Bush.

Bush is against a Homeland Security Department; then he's for it.
Bush is against a 9/11 commission; then he's for it.
Bush is against an Iraq WMD investigation; then he's for it.
Bush is against nation building; then he's for it.
Bush is against deficits; then he's for them.
Bush is for free trade; then he's for tariffs on steel; then he's against them again.
Bush is against the U.S. taking a role in the Israeli Palestinian conflict; then he pushes for a "road map" and a Palestinian State.
Bush is for states right to decide on gay marriage, then he is for changing the constitution.
Bush first says he'll provide money for first responders (fire, police, emergency), then he doesn't.
Bush first says that 'help is on the way' to the military ... then he cuts benefits.
Bush: "The most important thing is for us to find Osama bin Laden.
Bush: "I don't know where he is. I have no idea and I really don't care."
Bush claims to be in favor of the environment and then secretly starts drilling on Padre Island.
Bush talks about helping education and increases mandates while cutting funding.
Bush first says the U.S. won't negotiate with North Korea. Now he will
Bush goes to Bob Jones University. Then say's he shouldn't have.
Bush said he would demand a U.N. Security Council vote on whether to sanction military action against Iraq. Later Bush announced he would not call for a vote.
Bush said the "mission accomplished" banner was put up by the sailors.
Bush later admits it was his advance team.
Bush was for fingerprinting and photographing Mexicans who enter the US.
Bush after meeting with Pres. Fox, he's against it.

THE GAY FRAY

David Knight, the son of a California state senator who authored a ballot measure to outlaw same-sex weddings, jumped into the gay-marriage fray by wedding his long-time partner in San Francisco.

The San Francisco Chronicle notes that the pair are more than 3,700 like-gendered couples, including TV talk show host Rosie O'Donnell and her spouse, who have tied the knot.

Curiously absent, however, is Vice President Dick Cheney's lesbian daughter, Mary. Would it surprise anyone to know she's been labeled an enemy combatant?

DON'T BELIEVE THE HYPE

TheExperiment | Home => A News Filtration Experiment attempts to un-brainwash us of mass media's effects.

It'd be a long, hard slog.

ACCIDENTAL PORN

Although these video games were all the equivalent of a PG-13 movie, a few enterprising geeks have discovered a few suggestive moments: The Accidental Video Game Porn Archive.

Oh, the perils of having too much time on one's hands.

A BILLIONAIRE'S CONSCIENCE

Astoundingly, billionaire investor and head of Berkshire Hathaway Warren Buffett wrote in his letter to investors that Bush tax cuts have gone largely to well-to-do Americans and large corporations.

"If class warfare is being waged in America, my class is clearly winning," he writes.

The article notes that Berkshire's taxes rose more than eleven-fold to $3.3 billion from 1995 to 2003, as profits rose ten-fold to $8.15 billion. Yet, federal income taxes paid by all U.S. companies fell by 16 percent, to $132 billion in the same period

Buffett, the world's second-wealthiest person, is worth $42.9 billion.

Apparently, you can have both a conscience and a fortune.

FREE MARTHA!

Martha Stewart, once hailed as the doyenne of domesticity, was found guilty of lying to federal investigators about a well-timed stock sale that averted a loss of roughly $50,000.

Could the Stewart prosecution have anything to do with a smokescreen to obfuscate transgression by such people as former Enron CEO Kenneth Lay, whom Dumbya refers to as "Kenny boy," or the leeway with which Vice President Dick Cheney's former employer Halliburton enjoys?

Martha Stewart acted on what appears to have been something of an inside tip, which I'm sure NEVER happens on Wall Street. Yet no one lost their life savings, tax dollars weren't squandered and no American lives were lost as a result.

Yet as of this moment, no criminal charges are pending against two employees of a Halliburton subsidiary accepted $6.3 million in kickbacks from a Kuwaiti subcontractor.

It's more Bush wool over our eyes.

WHERE'S OSAMA?

If anyone's going to find Osama bin Laden, it just might be daredevil journalist Robert Young Pelton.

Pelton, known for his book, "The World's Most Dangerous Places," interviews a former mujahadeen who says bin Laden is likely in mountainous Pakistani territory.

"Chittal would be the most likely place," the majahadeen says. "There is little movement there in the winter. The airplanes don't work well that high up, and you will know when people are coming."

Pelton also interviews a CIA contract killer in Pakistan who boasts about being "guns with legs" and efforts to recruit Mormons and born-agains.

It makes one's patriotism swell.

PANCREATITIS DEFENDS LIBERTY!

Attorney General John Ashcroft has been hospitalized with a severe case of gallstone pancreatitis.

Normally, I'm not religious. But in this case, I do hope the Lord will ease his suffering.

POINTING AT AIR FORCE ONE

Newsday reports that a federal grand jury has subpoenaed phone records from Air Force One in an effort to find who leaked the name of CIA operative Valerie Plame to columnist Robert Novak. Plame is married to former Ambassador Joseph Wilson, among the first to publicly state that he could not corroborate assertions that Iraq tried to procure WMD in Africa.

No one states it as plainly as The Guardian in this story:

Larry Johnson, a former CIA officer, said he was trained 14 years ago with Valerie Plame, a specialist on weapons of mass destruction, whose naming by a Washington journalist quoting senior administration officials has triggered a criminal investigation of the White House.

The journalist who published Ms Plame's name, Robert Novak, said he was told she was an analyst and that although he was asked by the CIA not to use her name, he did not think it would endanger anyone.

Mr Johnson, now a business security consultant, vehemently disagreed.

"I was an analyst. She's not," he told the Guardian. "In any case, it is a red herring. Even when I was an analyst my own parents did not know who I worked for. The day we walked into the agency we were under cover and we only knew each other by last initials.

"She's under cover, working in a clandestine situation, and it was exposed for the sake of cheap, tawdry politics. Assessing the damage for this could be difficult and will take some time," Mr Johnson said.

"I'm a registered Republican and I'm sickened by this," he added. "I've spoken with four colleagues who have since left the agency who worked with her. And they are livid."

Ms Plame was named because she was the wife of Joseph Wilson, a critic of President Bush's policy on Iraq.

CRACK IN DIAPER

Really, the puns practically write themselves in this story.

DOES MEL GIBSON = 666?

Some moviegoers in Georgia freaked out about having the number 666 show up on their movie ticket stubs to go see Mel Gibson's "The Passion of the Christ."

Superstitions are best heeded!

OUR BELOVED FASCISTS

Lloyd Grove of the New York Daily News reported that an Academy Award "in memoriam" tribute of the late filmmaker and Nazi propagandist Leni Riefenstahl ruffled a few feathers. (My rewrite of the story for AP is here.)

Should an artist connected to one of humanity's darkest periods be recognized for her talent?

My friend David raised a good point, with which I agree entirely. He writes:

"I too saw Leni Riefenstahl's name come up on the Oscar broadcast and wondered about whether there would be some kind of backlash. To me, it seems appropriate she was mentioned, though. 'Triumph Des Willens' may have been Nazi propaganda, but it was and still is a highly influential film, and not just because of the controversy surrounding it. Riefenstahl was a talented director and editor who made up a whole new visual idom for film and continued to make documentaries and publish photographs for decades after the Nazis were overthrown. Besides, her mention at the Oscars was a tiny one, and ignoring the fact that she died is not going to bring healing
to anyone. It just buries her memory and her part in history.

"What I think is *really* interesting about all this is that I haven't heard any kind of outcry about including Elia Kazan in the same list. He was one of the Hollywood directors who cooperated McCarthy's House Unamerican Activities in the '50s by testifying against 'Communists' in Hollywood,
and no hissed when his name came up. He even got a lifetime achievement award from the Academy a few years back, though there was some controversy about that. If you ask me, he's as much or more of a villain than Reifenstahl. She at least has the excuse that she lived in a brutal dictatorship that only allowed her one outlet for her creativity. Kazan lived in America which, even during the stifling McCarthy years, was immeasurably more free than Hitler's Germany."

Thanks, David.