Month: April 2006

Pensito Review: Off the Wires

Buck Banks

Dutch Firm Baa-Ttles Local Mayor Over Ads
AMSTERDAM, Netherlands – A Dutch company that is blanketing roadside sheep with its logo faces a $60,000 fine — but said Monday it’s the mayor of a small town nearby who should feel sheepish for trying to ban the ad campaign. The company said the mayor was a wolf in sheep’s clothing, to which the mayor responded that the company was just trying to pull the wool over the public’s eyes in the escalating contest of sheep-related puns begun by an Associated Press intern.

Many Mexicans Ignore Presidential Campaign
MEXICO CITY – An old joke is being recycled in the Mexican capital as the campaign gears up for the July presidential elections: “If the three main candidates were together in a plane crash, who would survive?” In America, we have a similar old joke: “If the two main presidential candidates went quail hunting with Dick Cheney, who would survive?”

Vatican to Issue Document on Condom Use
VATICAN CITY – At Pope Benedict XVI’s request, the Vatican is preparing a document about condom use by those with AIDS, a top cardinal said in a published interview. Among condom uses the pope is expected to approve are water balloons, mop-handle grips and stick-shift dust covers.

Sorbonne Reopens After Weeks of Protests
PARIS – Students returned to classes past police vans Monday as the landmark Sorbonne University in Paris reopened after being closed for six weeks amid protests of a youth labor law that mired France in crisis. They even have a term for it in French — “coupure de ressort” (spring break).

Chavez: U.S. Diplomat Welcome in Venezuela
CARACAS, Venezuela – Venezuela’s president said Sunday that he would welcome a visit by a top U.S. State Department official and hopes to build close ties with like-minded Americans despite his vehement opposition to President Bush. While hinting that he would prefer a visit from “That eye-candy Condi Rice,” Chavez defined “like-minded Americans” as “ultra-left-wing authoritarian neo-communist autocratic whack-jobs.”

Former Powell Aide: Bush Has Led U.S. on ‘Path to Cease Being Good’

Jon Ponder

A Nation That Ceases to Be Good Will Cease to Be Great

Larry Wilkerson, who was State Dept. Chief of Staff under former Sec. of State Colin Powell — and a lifelong Republican — has been critical of President Bush since Powell resigned, but now he has gone ballistic:

In January 2001, with the inauguration of George W. Bush as president, America set on a path to cease being good; America became a revolutionary nation, a radical republic. If our country continues on this path, it will cease to be great — as happened to all great powers before it, without exception.

From the Kyoto accords to the International Criminal Court, from torture and cruel and unusual treatment of prisoners to rendition of innocent civilians, from illegal domestic surveillance to lies about leaking, from energy ineptitude to denial of global warming, from cherry-picking intelligence to appointing a martinet and a tyrant to run the Defense Department, the Bush administration, in the name of fighting terrorism, has put America on the radical path to ruin.

Unprecedented interpretations of the Constitution that holds the president as commander in chief to be all-powerful and without checks and balances marks the hubris and unparalleled radicalism of this administration.

Moreover, fiscal profligacy of an order never seen before has brought America trade deficits that boggle the mind and a federal deficit that, when stripped of the gimmickry used to make it appear more tolerable, will leave every child and grandchild in this nation a debt that will weigh upon their generations like a ball and chain around every neck. Imagine owing $150,000 from the cradle. That is radical irresponsibility.

This administration has expanded government — creation of the Homeland Security Department alone puts it in the record books — and government intrusiveness. It has brought a new level of sleaze and corruption to Washington (difficult to do, to be sure). And it has done the impossible in war-waging: put in motion a conflict in Iraq that in terms of colossal incompetence, civilian and military, and unbridled arrogance portends to top the Vietnam era, a truly radical feat.

Celebrate TV-Turnoff Week

Trish

Who could forget the scene in Network when Howard Beale urges us all to grab a T.V., go over to the window, yell, “I’m mad as hell and I’m not going to take it anymore” and hurl? The T.V., that is. Since 1976 when the movie was released, television has gotten relentlessly worse (not to mention heavier and bigger), more violent, dumber, and more negative.

“The one function TV news performs very well is that when there is no news we give it to you with the same emphasis as if there were.” — David Brinkley

It’s time to turn off the T.V. Literally. April 24 — 30 is TV Turnoff Week 2006. Visit the web site devoted to this movement for great quotes and alarming facts, including:

“We have reconstructed the Tower of Babel, and it is a television antenna: a thousand voices producing a daily parody of democracy, in which everyone’s opinion is afforded equal weight regardless of substance or merit.” — Ted Koppel

“The remarkable thing about television is that it permits several million people to laugh at the same joke and still feel lonely.” — T.S. Eliot

“Sometimes boys and girls would rather watch TV than read. When your teachers say read, they are giving you pretty damn good advice.” — President George W. Bush to a group of school children

  • Number of violent acts on TV absorbed by the average American child before age 18: 200,000
  • “If it bleeds it leads” news coverage of homicides increased 721% between 1993 and 1996. During that same time period, the actual homicide rate fell by 20%
  • 59% of Americans can name all of the Three Stooges while only 17% can name any three Supreme Court justices
  • 30% of local news broadcast time is devoted to advertising

What will you give up if you turn off the T.V.? You won’t know nearly as much about the Duke Lacrosse team. You’ll have to ask people who Natalee Holloway is, because the name won’t be implanted on your brain. And best of all, by both turning off the T.V. and sticking with liberal blogs online, you will know absolutely nothing about Rep. Cynthia McKinney, (D-Ga.) unless you live in her district. In which case, you have my sympathies.

The human brain was never equipped to process as much death and destruction as we feed ours. Give the T.V. a rest this week. And after that, consider making it permanent.

Quote du Jour

Buck Banks

Freedom of expression is the well-spring of our civilization …. The history of civilization is in considerable measure the displacement of error which once held sway as official truth by beliefs which in turn have yielded to other truths. Therefore the liberty of man to search for truth ought not to be fettered, no matter what orthodoxies he may challenge. Liberty of thought soon shrivels without freedom of expression. Nor can truth be pursued in an atmosphere hostile to the endeavor or under dangers which are hazarded only by heroes.

— Felix Frankfurter, (1882-1965), U.S. Supreme Court Justice

CA Gov: Westly Puts (Refund) Checks in the Mail to California Voters

Jon Ponder

Over the next few months, millions of Californians will receive their state tax refunds in envelopes like the one above. It can only be a good thing for Democratic candidate for governor Steve Westly that, as the state Controller, his name will appear on the envelopes bearing this happy news.

Even before this fortuitous free advertising, Westly had pulled ahead of his rival in the June primary, state Treasurer Phil Angelides. According to the latest Field poll, 37 percent of likely voters are for Westly, while 26 percent are for Angelides.

In fact, Westly — whom most Californians could not I.D. on a bet — is one percentage point ahead of Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, one of the Most Famous People in All the World, as Olbermann might say.

Bush to California: Drop Dead

Jon Ponder

He Won’t Provide Emergency Aid to Fix Vulnerable Levee System

President Bush is in the Bay Area this weekend. So far, the trip is not going well. His approval rating in California is at 32 percent, and has been in the low 30s for quite a while — we’re such trendsetters here, aren’t we?

An event that was to have taken place at the famed Hoover Tower on the campus of Stanford University had to be moved to a private residence because over a thousand or so protesters showed up and blocked the entrance.

The president also found himself placed in an akward situation by Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, whose popularity has been as low as the president’s but is now slightly ahead.

[Schwarzenegger] pressed his case Friday in a private meeting with President Bush — a visit that carried some political risk for the governor, given Bush’s ebbing popularity among California voters.

The two spoke for about 15 minutes … with the governor calling for more money to fix California’s aging levee system…

Word from the White House was mixed. In a conference call with reporters before Air Force One even landed in California, a Bush advisor said federal officials would speed environmental permits so repairs could begin on 29 vulnerable levees in the Central Valley.

White House officials also said the federal government might share the cost of fixing the levees, which has been a priority of Schwarzenegger’s in his third year in office.

But the Bush administration declined to issue a federal disaster declaration — a vehicle for additional federal funding and something that Schwarzenegger had requested.

It is “legally inappropriate” to declare a disaster before it happens, said James L. Connaughton, chairman of the White House Council on Environmental Quality.

The idea of a Bush official worrying about what is legally appropriate is a bit of hoot. As Fabian Nuñez, the speaker of the state Assembly, put it, Bush’s response to the request was, “Bush to California: Drop dead.”

Still, the governor’s actions are curious. Usually these matters are worked out in advance so that actual meetings are pro forma. It appears that Schwarzenegger staged the confrontation, hoping to distance himself from the unpopular president by making a request he knew Bush would have to refuse.

Cheney Naps During Meeting with Chinese President

Jon Ponder

Raw Story:

Getty images caught Vice President Dick Cheney napping as other administration officials left a briefing by President Bush and Chinese leader Hu Jintao.

The New York Post featured the image prominently in today’s edition, with a caption explaining, “The veep’s people later insisted he was reading his notes, but if you ask us, it sure looks as if he’s dreaming of quail hunting – and maybe bagging some birds this time.”

Utah Theatre Owner Who Banned ‘Brokeback’ Rethinks His Homophobia after Session with Gay Students

Jon Ponder

Every now and then, a homophobe sees the error of his ways:

Larry Miller, the Utah theater owner who pulled Brokeback Mountain from his theaters last January, met with about 30 gay and lesbian students at the University of Utah who enlightened him about what it’s like to be gay. According to the Salt Lake Tribune, students told Miller about the difficulties of coming out and the fear of being physically harmed. The discussion appeared to change Miller’s previously unwavering stance on his decision to pull the movie.

Said Miller: “Now, I understand how something I said inadvertently made them feel demeaned as individuals. Maybe their well-being trumps my beliefs, my rights to express myself…In 2006, it’s wrong that they have to live in that fear.”

We’ll give Larry a pass on the fact that he expressed his homophobic views deliberately, not “inadvertently,” but can’t resist pointing out that in addition to the cineplex, Miller also owns a huge car dealership in Stalt Lake City as well as part of the Utah Jazz basketball team, which makes his change of heart illustrative of the fact that bigots who make their fortunes from consumer-oriented services are the most vulnerable to being flipped.

Quote du Jour: Bush Praises Freedom of Speech Then Has Woman Arrested for Verbal Protest

Jon Ponder

“China has become successful because the Chinese people are experience [sic] the freedom to buy, and to sell, and to produce — and China can grow even more successful by allowing the Chinese people the freedom to assemble, to speak freely, and to worship.”

— President George W. Bush, on Thursday, just moments before a woman was arrested for verbally protesting the visit of Chinese President Hu Jintao at the White House