Author: Trish

NBC to Dixie Chicks: Shut Up and Go Away

Trish

Does it never end? Now NBC is reportedly refusing to run ads for the documentary about the Dixie Chicks, “Shut Up and Sing.” Before we go on, view the trailer.

Looks good, right? I wish it were released a couple of weeks ago and in wide release instead of only heading to New York and L.A. theaters this weekend, but still.

The company distributing a new documentary about the Dixie Chicks has blasted the NBC and CW networks for allegedly refusing to accept a commercial spot for the film, which opens in four theaters Friday.

In a press release issued late Thursday, the Weinstein Co. said NBC rejected a spot for “Dixie Chicks: Shut Up and Sing,” because the spot included material that “disparages President Bush.”

So who doesn’t? The point is, why is NBC refusing to comment on this?

The Weinstein Co. distributed a document from CW that referred to “concerns (that) we do not have appropriate programming in which to schedule this spot.”

…According to a source, the spot has been cleared for broadcast on CBS, MTV and on local NBC, CW, ABC and Fox affiliates in New York and Los Angeles, as well as on local cable systems, including local spots on Fox News and CNN.

Yeah, no appropriate programming. The network that gave us Must See TV, Saturday Night Live, and The West Wing finds an ad for a documentary about censorship and blacklisting “inappropriate” for its viewers.

There is also a blog associated with the film, called Shut Up and Post. PR readers need to go there and participate because it looks like it’s getting overrun with trolls. Check it out, and leave a note for our side.

Florida’s Next Governor Might be a Democrat After All

Trish

The latest Quinnipiac University poll shows a dramatic change in the Florida governor’s race. Democrat U.S. Rep. Jim Davis is in a statistical dead heat with Republican State Attorney General Charlie Crist. The poll shows 46 percent support Crist, 44 support Davis, and 11 percent say they might still change their minds.

”We are seeing a candidate for what he really is…But it’s not going to work. We’re not stuck on stupid.”

For someone who seemed like a shoe-in the day after the primary, Crist has been unprepared for the going to be this tough. His early commercials stressed that a vote for Crist would be the next best thing to being able to vote for term-limited Jeb again.

Until Davis started pointing out some flaws in Jeb’s policies. Then Charlie — dare we say it — flip-flopped.

…Crist’s late-season conversions, coincidentally or not, target issues that Davis has been using to make inroads into Crist’s sizable lead in the polls…

”Life’s a journey,” Crist told The Miami Herald editorial board this week, explaining why he changed his mind on felons’ voting rights…

The felon-vote issue was accompanied this week by another zigzag, when Crist said he wants to allow flexibility in the way the high-stakes FCAT test is handled…

Those are all positions that Democratic opponent Jim Davis has staked out. They are also contrary to Gov. Jeb Bush’s approach — which Crist had earlier said he supported.

As the poll shows, everybody’s not buying it.

”We are seeing a candidate for what he really is — one who will do whatever it takes to win an election,” said [Democrat] Rep. Dorothy Bendross-Mendingall of Miami. “But it’s not going to work. We’re not stuck on stupid.”

And as Crist tries to distance himself from his soul-mate Jeb, he’s gotten a little taste of the big guy’s famous temper.

Some background: Crist’s ads have focused on the fact that Davis has missed votes (mostly minor ones that House Republicans have sewn up) during his campaign. After Jeb cancelled a cabinet meeting in order to give Charlie more time to campaign (Editor’s note: we’re positive Jeb would have cancelled the people’s business for a Democrat too. Not!), you could hear the testy in Jeb’s tone from here.

Citing an article in The Palm Beach Post in which Crist said he never asked for the cancellation, Bush said, “So what the heck, let’s have it.”

Finally, Florida newspapers this weekend, while still not offering proof Crist is gay, focused on his status as single and childless.

[Crist] seems to be missing one key ingredient: The typical politician pictures with his adoring wife and cute offspring.

…So does Crist’s lack of a family affect his qualifications to serve as governor?

After all, as a bachelor he has the time to devote to the demands of the office, without taking time away from his own wife and children. The same way Catholic priests can be single-minded in their devotion to their parish, Florida will get a governor who is committed full-time.

…we can’t help wonder, without those family experiences to hone skills that are also important in the political venue, can a person do as good of a job at governing and dealing with the Legislature?

Nice insertion of the priest image there. Did everyone get that? But wait, another paper took it from a different angle.

If voters choose Charlie Crist as governor, Florida won’t have a first lady. But it will have a first father.

Crist’s best friend, football-watching buddy and financial adviser is his 74-year-old father, the original Charles J. Crist, a politician in his own right who passed on his name to his only son.

You get the idea. All Davis needs now is more money since Crist’s millions have him outgunned with a deluge of ads. If you live in Florida, or if you just have some cash sitting around, go to the Davis web site and give. Hurry, the cut-off date is Nov. 2. Do it now.

If Andy Rooney Is Against You…

Trish

What does it mean for the Bush team when Andy Rooney uses his slot on 60 Minutes to ask, “What in the world are we doing in Iraq?” Hey Jon, you and everyone else in later time slots should tune into the the last three minutes of the show tonight. Believe me, it was accident that I caught it but I’m glad I did. Talk about the tide turning…

I just checked, and the transcript is up on the the CBS site.

I’d like to talk to you about something you probably don’t want to be talked to about.

Someone – and I guess it’s President Bush – has to tell us what in the world we’re doing in Iraq now. I don’t think any of us know. We did the right thing getting rid of Saddam Hussein, but what are we doing there now?

The Pentagon never tells us anything. Usually reporters and cameramen let us know quite a bit but it’s so dangerous for them in Baghdad now that even they can’t show us much of what’s going on.

So far almost 2,800 American soldiers have been killed in Iraq. I say “almost 2,800” because there is no exact number. It changes by six or eight every day. That’s how many of our young men get killed? And for what? Just tell us, Mr. President. For what? It hasn’t even been good for Iraq; it certainly hasn’t been good for us. The whole world thinks less of us for what we’re doing there.

This little war is costing us $2 billion a what? I forget, a day, a week, a minute? It’s the kind of money I can’t even imagine.

President Bush should stand up there in front of us on television and do the hardest thing of all for any president to do. Tell us the truth. He should just say “Americans, there’s something I have to tell you. You trusted me to be your leader and I thought I was doing the right thing when we went into Iraq. Well, I hate to admit it but I was wrong. I’m sorry but we never should have gone in and now we should get out.”

Well, I’m not holding my breath until President Bush says that because I’ve never heard him admit he was wrong about anything. It isn’t something presidents do. I don’t recall hearing Bill Clinton or Jimmy Carter admitting they were wrong either.

I was asked to keep this short tonight. Fortunately it’s easier to be short when I’m serious. Funny takes longer.

A Story of Iraq, Katrina, and a Dismembered Girlfriend

Trish

I can’t get the report about the guy who dismembered his girlfriend in New Orleans and then committed suicide out of my head.

I am a hundred percent in the personal responsibility camp but it seems, even to me, like this story is evidence of the very bad karma George Bush has loosed upon our country

After Hurricane Katrina, Zackery Bowen and his girlfriend Adriane Hall appeared in news stories as examples of young people who had pressed on in the battered city despite evacuation orders and a lack of power and water.

Their story came to a disturbing end this week: Bowen leapt to his death from a hotel, leaving a note that led police to a French Quarter apartment where they found a woman’s charred head on the stove, limbs in the oven and torso in the refrigerator.

Yes, if it were a movie I would be hiding my eyes during this part, but the obvious details aren’t all that’ve been bothering me. I am a hundred percent in the personal responsibility camp but it seems, even to me, like this story is evidence of the very bad karma George Bush has loosed upon our country.

[Bowen] served in Kosovo and Iraq as a military policeman, earning several medals including the NATO medal and the Presidential Unit Citation, which is awarded to military units that have performed a heroic act in the face of an armed enemy.

After his discharge, Bowen returned to New Orleans, where he was hired at several bars because of his good looks, charming manners, and long blond hair…

A fellow bartender told the New Orleans Times-Picayune that after downing rounds of Miller High Life and Jameson’s Irish Whiskey, Bowen would grow depressed when talking about his military service, indicating that there was an overseas incident involving a child that haunted him.

New Orleans is the perfect backdrop in this horror screenplay. After all, the town with one of the richest histories in America was rendered a practically Biblical backwater after the Bush administration left its residents to die and its structures to crumble.

Alligators have been dragged from abandoned swimming pools. Foxes had to be removed from the airport. Coyotes are stalking rabbits and nutria…in city streets. And armadillos are undermining air conditioning units.

In the year since Hurricane Katrina drove out many of the people of New Orleans, wild animals have been moving in. Some were blown in by the winds or redistributed by the floodwaters. Others were drawn by the piles of rotting garbage and by the shelter afforded by all the abandoned homes and tall weeds.

Responsible for killing his girlfriend and himself: Bowen
Responsible for sending Bowen to Iraq and ruining his life: Bush
Responsible for ruining the formerly great American city where the murder-suicide took place: Bush
Ruin, ruin, and more ruin: Bush

Maybe I’m looking at this the wrong way, and I’m sure Bush supporters will leave nasty comments deriding me for doing just that, but it seems to me that this story is one more indication that there are consequences for what Bush himself calls “evil doing.”

Karma is often misdefined by the My Name is Earl model of direct cause and effect. A more accurate definition is the very simple idea that whatever you create more of in the world is what you, and others, are more likely to encounter. It’s the law of mathematics.

While Katrina was still a fresh crisis, Republicans loved to say there was plenty of blame to go around, meaning none of the blame was theirs. I’m not for a second defending the acts committed by this ruined man in this ruined place. But sometimes a story is so bad that you have to really think about it. And on this one, I just keep ending up at the White House door.

Repug Proposes Unorthodox Solution to School Shootings

Trish

Who says the GOP is not the party of ideas? A Republican who wants to be the next superintendent of schools for Oklahoma has burned the midnight oil to come up with a plan to keep students safe in the event of a school shooting.

Or, judging by the plan itself, maybe it was something green with buds that he was burning. AP:

“There are some rifles not even Webster’s Dictionary will stop.”

A candidate for state superintendent of schools said Thursday he wants thick used textbooks placed under every student’s desk so they can use them for self-defense during school shootings.

“People might think it’s kind of weird, crazy,” said Republican Bill Crozier of Union City, Oklahoma, a teacher and former Air Force security officer. “It is a practical thing; it’s something you can do. It might be a way to deflect those bullets until police go there.”

Hey man, pass the bong this way. Oh wow, you know what we should do? We should, like, shoot some books and make a video!

Crozier and a group of aides produced a 10-minute video Tuesday in which they shoot math, language and telephone books with a variety of weapons, including an AK-47 assault rifle and a 9mm pistol. The rifle bullet penetrated two books, including a calculus textbook, but the pistol bullet was stopped by a single book.

Crozier said the demonstration shows that a student could effectively use a textbook as protection in a school shooting.

For those not on drugs, it’s hard to respond to the idea seriously.

An Oklahoma Highway Patrol spokesman was skeptical.

“He probably needs to take a look at some ballistics tests,” Lt. Pete Norwood said. “There are some rifles not even Webster’s Dictionary will stop.”

Kevin Tillman Speaks

Trish

This one needs to be shouted from rooftops.

Kevin Tillman is the brother of Pat Tillman, the former NFL player who died in Afghanistan in what the military first termed as “killed in action” and later admitted was friendly fire. Both brothers enlisted in 2002, shortly after the Sept. 11 attacks.

Somehow we were sent to invade a nation because it was a direct threat to the American people, or to the world, or harbored terrorists, or was involved in the September 11 attacks, or received weapons-grade uranium from Niger, or had mobile weapons labs, or WMD, or had a need to be liberated, or we needed to establish a democracy, or stop an insurgency, or stop a civil war we created that can’t be called a civil war even though it is. Something like that.

Kevin has written an extraordinary essay that contains all the thoughts he and Pat knew they would have to keep to themselves while they served our country.

You need to read it in its entirety and then email it to everyone you know. You can do both at Truth Dig but here’s part of this incredible work.

Much has happened since we handed over our voice:

Somehow we were sent to invade a nation because it was a direct threat to the American people, or to the world, or harbored terrorists, or was involved in the September 11 attacks, or received weapons-grade uranium from Niger, or had mobile weapons labs, or WMD, or had a need to be liberated, or we needed to establish a democracy, or stop an insurgency, or stop a civil war we created that can’t be called a civil war even though it is. Something like that.

…Somehow our elected leaders were subverting international law and humanity by setting up secret prisons around the world, secretly kidnapping people, secretly holding them indefinitely, secretly not charging them with anything, secretly torturing them. Somehow that overt policy of torture became the fault of a few “bad apples” in the military.

…Somehow the more soldiers that die, the more legitimate the illegal invasion becomes.

…Somehow profiting from tragedy and horror is tolerated.

Somehow the death of tens, if not hundreds, of thousands of people is tolerated.

Somehow subversion of the Bill of Rights and The Constitution is tolerated.

Somehow suspension of Habeas Corpus is supposed to keep this country safe.

…Somehow reason is being discarded for faith, dogma, and nonsense.

Somehow American leadership managed to create a more dangerous world.

Somehow a narrative is more important than reality.

…Somehow being politically informed, diligent, and skeptical has been replaced by apathy through active ignorance.

Somehow the same incompetent, narcissistic, virtueless, vacuous, malicious criminals are still in charge of this country.

Somehow this is tolerated.

McCain Threatens Suicide if Dems Prevail

Trish

Remember when we all shamed Bill O’Reilly into keeping his word and apologizing that he was wrong to support Bush’s invasion of Iraq? Well, stock up on letterhead because I’m sure you’ll want to hold John McCain to his word as well.

“I think I’d just commit suicide,” McCain told reporters

McCain, on a visit to Iowa to campaign for Republican congressional candidates, was asked his reaction to a potential Democratic takeover of the Senate in the November 7 elections.

“I think I’d just commit suicide,” McCain told reporters, to accompanying laughter from Republicans standing with him. “I don’t want to face that eventuality because I don’t think it’s going to happen.”

Yuck it up now, bald guy, because your day is coming.

Democrats must pick up six seats in the Senate and 15 seats in the House of Representatives to win control of both chambers.

Polls show Democrats within striking distance of reclaiming the Senate, and in a strong position to claim a majority in the House.

Republicans Tell Blacks, “Democrats Will Kill Your Babies”

Trish

Somebody stayed up late to come up with this one. A new ad campaign by the Rebooblican America’s PAC is being aired on urban radio stations. The campaign starts by telling African-American listeners that Democrats favor abortion as a means of wiping out blacks.

A female announcer says, “Black babies are terminated at triple the rate of white babies.” Democrats support “liberal abortion laws that are decimating our people”

In one particularly provocative spot, as a baby cries and thunder clasps in the background, a female announcer says, “Black babies are terminated at triple the rate of white babies.” Democrats support “liberal abortion laws that are decimating our people,” she says, while “the individual’s right to life is protected in the Republican platform.”

“Don’t buy the Democrats’ lie,” intones a male announcer as he reads the ad’s tagline. “Killing unborn babies is no way to help those in poverty.”

Another ad asks, “Why do our leaders in Congress support the pro-abortion agenda of the Democrats? Or more to the point: Why do we support them?”

I guess this has a certain appeal. More damaging, since it’s often true, might be the ads from the same group that say Democrats take black voters for granted.

The ads targeting African-American voters have been largely cleared on urban music stations owned by Lanham, MD-based Radio One, a minority-owned group which calls itself the “Urban Media Specialist.”

…”When someone you’ve called a friend betrays you, the truth can hurt,” a female announcer says. “For 50 years now, we’ve trusted the Democrats for education, health care and economic opportunity. And the truth is, today’s Democrats take us for granted.”

Least effective might be the ads targeting Latinos.

The group is also running ads on Hispanic stations in Denver, Albuquerque, Sacramento and Las Vegas, among other markets. The New York Sun reported one of those ads says, “Republicans respect the Latino soldier… Enough with these Democrats.”

Hear all the ads for yourself.

Bush Obsessing Over “Really High Stakes” of Failure

Trish

Not only can I not stand to listen to George W. Bush — the only president who consistently evokes Jimmy Cagney when speaking by using the word, “see” to start or end nearly every sentence — I can’t stand to watch him talk either.

But Julie Mason can, and she records some sharp observations about his recent Rose Garden press conference.

Bush has been using a different speaking style lately, with more angry-sounding, often highly partisan rhetoric and stronger body language.

He grips the podium, jabs a finger and raises his voice. He squares his shoulders, mocking Democrats and scoffing at critics of his policies.

Mason concludes that Bush is in campaign battle mode.

Key issues for Bush are North Korea and the Middle East, where the stakes, Bush said, “are really high.” And numerous: Bush alluded to the “stakes” 11 times in just more than an hour in his Rose Garden news conference.

Bush has been using a different speaking style lately, with more angry-sounding, often highly partisan rhetoric and stronger body language.

In fact, “the stakes couldn’t be any higher,” Bush said. “I understand the stakes. I’m going to repeat them one more time.”

He added, “As a matter of fact, I’m going to spend a lot of time repeating the stakes.”

The stakes are high for Bush in November. If he can’t lead his party to another majority in the House and Senate, his domestic agenda may wind up as scraps of forgotten rhetoric. He could also face stronger and more effective resistance to his Iraq policy…

Everyone got that? See, the stakes are really high. For once I’ll take Bush’s word for it. So get out and vote, see? Because undermining Bush’s ability to have his way is the highest stake of all.