Day: March 6, 2006

‘Rolling Thunder’ Protects Families at Military Funerals Protested by Phelps Church

Jon Ponder

For over a year, Rev. Fred Phelps and his Christian extremist followers from the Westboro, Kansas, Baptist Church, have been on a ghoulish mission: protesting about homosexuality at funerals of members of the armed services who have been killed in Iraq. Typically, about 20 church members travel to the funeral, and position themselves near the proceedings shouting epithets and holding colorful signs that read, “God Hates Your Tears,” “God Hates Fags” and similar messages.

Now, as CNN has been reporting, a group of volunteers has come together to protect these grieving families from harrassment by the Westboro Baptists.

In the dynamics of the situation, it is the military familes that are victimized by the Christian nut cases. And yet the group that came together to protect the families did not coalesce out of Christians who were ashamed of what was being done in Jesus’ name.

The Patriot Guide Riders is a group of bikers who are military veterans who came together to protect their own. When word comes that the Phelps church group is on its way to protest a funeral, the Riders gather in the town with their bikes and stand in formation a respectful distance from the funeral revving their engines to create a “rolling thunder” effect that drowns out the protests like white noise.

Poll: 80% Believe Civil War in Iraq Is Coming

Jon Ponder

Washington Post-ABC News:

An overwhelming majority of the public believe fighting between Sunni and Shiite Muslims in Iraq will lead to civil war and half say the United States should begin withdrawing its forces from that violence-torn country, according to the latest Washington Post-ABC News poll.

The survey found that 80 percent believed that recent sectarian violence made civil war in Iraq likely, and more than a third said such a conflict was “very likely” to occur. These expectations extend beyond party lines: More than seven in 10 Republicans and eight in 10 Democrats and political independents believe such a conflict is coming.

GOP House Chairman Known for Tantrum to Retire

Jon Ponder

House Ways and Means Chairman Bill Thomas announced his retirement today, after 14 terms representing Bakersfield, California, in the Congress. Thomas is leaving one of the most powerful positions in Congress to spend time with his family, which has given rise to speculation that he may be at the center of a scandal that is about to break.

Known for being dictatorial and foul tempereed, his signature moment was an altercation with Democratic Rep. Pete Stark in July 2003:

[Chairman Thomas] was in classic form when he presented Democrats a last-minute substitute bill they had not seen. When Democrats walked out to an adjoining room to plot strategy, Thomas ordered them out of that room. When they refused to leave, Thomas, in high pique, summoned the [Capitol Police to have them evicted].

Stark was likewise in full character when, as the lone Democrat remaining in the full committee to stall for time, he made a snide comment about Thomas’s intellect. When another Republican took issue, Stark dared him to fight and then called him a “fruitcake” and a “wimp,” repeating those terms frequently even as he apologized later for using them.

Bakersfield is about as Red State as it gets in Calfornia, and Kevin McCarthy, Republican leader in the California Assembly, has already announced that he will run for the seat.

Pensito Review nominated for Koufax Award

Jon Ponder

The Koufax Awards are open voting and Pensito Review has been nominated for Best New Blog (thanks Bob!).

You vote by following the link and leaving a comment (only one per voter, and, yes, they can track it) or by sending an email to an address found here.

Pensito Review

A couple of our friends are nominated too:

Bob Geiger:

Pam’s House Blend:

Crooks & Liars:

Finke: Hollywood’s Homophobia on Par with Pat Robertson’s

Jon Ponder

LA Weekly’s Nikki Finke:

Way back on January 17th, I decided to nominate the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences for Best Bunch of Hypocrites. That’s because I felt this year’s dirty little Oscar secret was the anecdotal evidence pouring in to me about hetero members of the Academy of Motions Picture Arts and Sciences being unwilling to screen Brokeback Mountain. For a community that takes pride in progressive values, it seemed shameful to me that Hollywood’s homophobia could be on a par with Pat Robertson’s. So in the February 1st issue of LA Weekly, I warned that, despite the hype you saw in the press and on the Internet about Brokeback, with its eight nominations, being the supposed favorite to take home the Best Picture Oscar, Crash could end up winning.

Well, turns out I was right. Hollywood showed tonight it isn’t the liberal bastion it once was. That’s pitiful if you’re a progressive, and pleasing if you’re a conservative.

Liberal Hollywood’s ‘Unspoken Fears and Unconscious Prejudices’ Doomed ‘Brokeback Mountain’

Jon Ponder

I don’t usually care which film wins the Oscars, but last night I was rooting for “Brokeback Mountain” so the fact that it lost to “Crash” was a disappointment. Film reviewer Kenneth Turan says what I privately suspected in the Los Angeles Times this morning:

In the privacy of the voting booth, as many political candidates who’ve led in polls only to lose elections have found out, people are free to act out the unspoken fears and unconscious prejudices that they would never breathe to another soul, or, likely, acknowledge to themselves. And at least this year, that acting out doomed “Brokeback Mountain.”

Sometimes you win by losing, and nothing has proved what a powerful, taboo-breaking, necessary film “Brokeback Mountain” was more than its loss Sunday night to “Crash” in the Oscar best picture category…

More than any other of the nominated films, “Brokeback Mountain” was the one people told me they really didn’t feel like seeing, didn’t really get, didn’t understand the fuss over. Did I really like it, they wanted to know. Yes, I really did.

In the privacy of the voting booth, as many political candidates who’ve led in polls only to lose elections have found out, people are free to act out the unspoken fears and unconscious prejudices that they would never breathe to another soul, or, likely, acknowledge to themselves. And at least this year, that acting out doomed “Brokeback Mountain.”

For Hollywood, as a whole laundry list of people announced from the podium Sunday night and a lengthy montage of clips tried to emphasize, is a liberal place, a place that prides itself on its progressive agenda. If this were a year when voters had no other palatable options, they might have taken a deep breath and voted for “Brokeback.” This year, however, “Crash” was poised to be the spoiler.

Movies as exquisitely made as “Brokeback” — I’m talking about the artistry, not the topic — come along once in a generation, if we’re lucky.

“Brokeback Mountain” did not lose last night because “Crash” is a better made film. “Brokeback Mountain” lost because a majority of Oscar voters were uncomfortable with its theme.

As a film geek, I’ll say this: In 50 years — when homophobia is looked at as an old fashioned prejudice the way anti-semiticism is now — “Brokeback” will be in the pantheon of great American films like “Casablanca,” “Citizen Kane” and “Gone with the Wind.” And last night will be considered a low point in Oscar history.

[…]