Mourning the loss of Jennifer

Liverputty will be on hiatus for awhile to honor the passing of a special friend. Jennifer made a positive and lasting impact on those who knew her. She was a wonderful, charming and inspiring person. Words cannot express how much she will be missed. Our thoughts and prayers go out to her husband and kids.

GOP senators want to give $100 tax rebates to us for gas prices

I'm all for tax rebates, but this is just stupid. Why not just limit the checks to battleground states? I think it would be better if we weaned the government off the gas tax teat.

Encouraging news in Iraq

Not exactly new news, but Iraqis seem to be saying no to civil war and yes unity. Still a ways to go – but at least they’re going. For all the details on good developments in Iraq, go to Edward Copeland’s site…..oops, my mistake….Gateway Pundit has a roundup.

Good job, Bolton!

He managed to get a resolution on Sudan. It should be clear that China only cares about war criminals if they are already dead and Japanese. Pretty pathetic. As usual, you’ll have to scroll past the usually lame cartoon on Captain Ed’s site to get to the post.

Government probes generally screw somebody

So it’s disappointing that Bush called for one on the oil companies. What a waste of tax dollars! Tony Blankley complains about it better than I can.

They’re not exactly “thinkers” are they?

“Peace protestors” hurl gas bombs against Condi Rice. Personally, I’m offended at their lack of concern for the environment.

Pretty clever anti-Bush video

where Bush sings "Imagine" and then lapses into "Give Oppression a Chance".

Vote for the Best of the Best Pictures

There's just a few days left to vote for the best Best Pictures in Edward Copelands survey. I sent my ballot in already. I've heard from several people who said they wouldn't vote because they hadn't seen enough of the movies or felt like they lacked the authority to decide. Fiddle Faddle! Pshaww! Nonsense! You guys should vote anyway. If nothing else, it will help represent the Best Pictures that people got off their duffs to actually watch. Click on Edward's link, and follow the easy instructions. And click here to see the results of Edward Copeland's worst Best Pictures survey. Now I will list my top five pics, the main ones that I care about.


1. Casablanca Try to imagine the Hollywood of today making a bigtime, major melodrama with A-list Stars and a plot ripped from the headlines that also serves as a righteous piece of propaganda, urging people to CHOOSE A SIDE on the major events of the day, and the right side too. Now imagine that every line of dialogue and every plot point quickly becomes a popular cliche, and I mean cliche in the good sense, as in originality with staying power. Can you imagine all this? Are you in the Twilight Zone yet? In an age when most Hollywood movies tend to reverse that famous speech, by having world events and moments of great import not amount to a hill of beans when compared to the problems of three little people, this is the movie that got it right the first time. Casablanca works on so many levels it is mind-blowing. I once watched it just for the continuity, paying attention to how far down Bogie's cigarettes were smoked, and whether the glass on the table was half-full or half-empty, and the movie still kicked ass. I see that imdb says I don't know what I'm talking about; Casablanca has several continuity errors. A couple of these are undeniable, but I would still challenge and beg to differ with most of them. No, I still say the movie kicks ass continuity-wise and all other wises too.
Caveats: None
Quotability Quotient: 100%
Double Featured with: Rossellini's neorealist melodrama Open City.

2. It Happened One Night This Capra movie is pure magic. I have nothing to add that hasn't already been said about the laughs, the romance, and the charisma of its stars. I will add that this ain't no studio bound production. This is a movie that gets out and sees some country. Much of it now works as docu-drama. I love its sketch of the roadside sleeping cabins, with weary travelers standing in line to use the bathhouse. Perfect. A funny, sexy gem that is very modern in its pacing.
Caveats: None. (Don't get suckered into looking for that always-filming-one-side-of-Ms. Colbert's-face thing.)
Quotability Quotient: 92%
Double Featured with: That Uncertain Feeling - very loosely our couple seven years later.

3. Lawrence of Arabia I never understood the critics who compained that after seeing Lawrence of Arabia they still didn't know much about the enigmatic T.E. Lawrence. Whatever. Those guys should try reading The Seven Pillars of Wisdom sometime. Lawrence of Arabia is the ultimate in cinematic teletransportation. I had already fallen in love with it on badly cropped video, but seeing it in glorious 70mm was a true revelation, and I count myself one lucky s.o.b. to have seen it on the big screen twice in Dallas, once at the Castro in San Fran, and a few more times while operating the only 70mm projector in Oklahoma City. Once upon a time, I had to tutor and watch after some preteens. To entertain them, I just ripped off Lawrence and told large chunks of the first half in the first person. Those kids were on the edge of their seats. The sensory experience of Lawrence was so strong that it was easy to tell it like it happened to me.
Caveats: Sure, it's super long, and the second half isn't as tight as the first, but I love the whole thing.
Quotability Quotient: 74%
Double Featured with: It's its own double-feature, so how about something short about Persians, not Arabs, but still nomads, like Merian C. Cooper's Grass.

4. All About Eve Who writes dialogue like this now? I'd say we're no longer worthy. Even today's best practitioners provide only a little fire or some music but never both the Fire and Music that Joseph L. Mankiewicz provided on a regular basis. This is one of the sharpest, most paradigmatic films about theater life, not that I'm in any position to know. And thank god these characters are in the theater, because if you made them all wear little Hitler mustaches and goose-stepped them through the plot, then the rest of the world had better watch out!
Caveats: A tad long.
Quotability Quotient: 99%
Double Featured with: Gregory Peck in The Gunfighter.

5. The Best Years of Our Lives As a kid, I fell in love with this movie right at the beginning, with its long takes of our returning heroes looking out the front of a B-17 as it flies over the home they've been homesick for: Boone City. The audience might get homesick for the movies' portrait of Anywhere, U.S.A. There's great deep-focus camerawork from Gregg Toland, and William Wyler stuffs the screen with wonderful details. I liked the folks in this movie, and the bottom line is I believed it. Sure, this wasn't the whole story after the war (and how could it be?) but with Best Years a whole swath of Americana comes to life.
Caveats: Long and soapy.
Quotability Quotient: 46% The same as its release year. Very weird.
Double Featured with: Let's start the evening with Raoul Walsh's WWII actioner Desperate Journey.

Of course there’s a double-standard!

With half-baked reporting like this, Pincus may be headed for next year’s Pulitzer Prize.

Here’s how the double-standard works: the President can’t “leak” information. He can only release it. The administration has that authority, regardless of any political implications that might exist. In contrast, CIA officials are not authorized to release classified information, unless ordered to do so. Why is that? Because the President is elected and CIA bureaucrats are not. It would be very dangerous for career CIA agents to determine policy. It’s a simple case of separation of powers (like civilian control over the military) – something that Democrats in Congress seem to be quick to cite though slow (if not incapable) to understand.

That’s the double standard - now on to the reporting:

The first thing that bugged me about Walter Pincus’s story is how he chose to describe the McCarthy leak and the release of Plame’s identity. Check it out:

Describing Plamegate –

Harman was referring to White House staff members disclosing the classified identity of CIA case officer Valerie Plame in 2003.

And later on, in describing McCarthy’s leak –

McCarthy, while working for CIA Inspector General John L. Helgerson, is alleged to have "knowingly and willfully shared classified intelligence, including operational information" to journalists including The Washington Post's Dana Priest.

Now I’m not a journalist and I would invite those Liverputty readers/contributors who have journalism experience to set me straight on the matter: How is it that Pincus makes sure to include “alleged” whenever addressing McCarthy’s leak, even though she reportedly admitted to leaking the information, yet, Pincus does not use “alleged” for the Plamegate accusations, even though 2 years of investigations have not turned up enough evidence for an indictment, let alone a conviction? Pincus’s presumption of innocence seems to be bass ackwards. Is it kosher to assume innocence on someone who has confessed guilt?

And then there’s the more minor matter of McCarthy’s political donations. Pincus does point out that McCarthy donated $2000 to Kerry, but does not mention the remaining $7K of donations she’s made in years past to other Democratic causes. By mentioning the Kerry donations, we do get the picture of her political leanings, but surely the other donations would’ve further hurt the claim that she “leaked” for our national security and not for partisan reasons. Of course, her political donations don’t prove one way or another what the real motives were for the leak, but that’s something a paper should report for the reader to decide, right?

I’ll refrain from criticizing Pincus for seriously reporting on John Kerry’s arguments, as it is hard enough for a person to describe how Kerry comes down on any particular topic without sounding utterly ridiculous, if at all coherent. That Kerry thinks “leaks” that are “true” are acceptable is pretty darn hilarious since it pretty much nullifies any belief that any administration can or should classify anything for any reason. Also, I find Kerry’s (and others’) comparisons between the leaking of black sites and the NSA program with Plamegate to be disingenuous at best - regardless of what the definition of is is. Whether Pincus agrees with Kerry’s rubric for what’s a good or bad leak is beside the point. For the record, I assume Pincus does agree that the NSA leak and black sites leak are good and the efforts to discredit Wilson are bad – but that’s just my assumption.

Damn you, 70's grit!

Why'd you have to go and make Will Penny so lonely?

Okay, so the movie was from 1968...but it brought to mind 70s grit. And those were my words when the credits rolled and I threw my wet hanky at the screen. Will Penny's got to be one of the best Charlton Heston performances I've seen. I was sad with him, nervous with him, embarrassed with him...hell, I even wanted to learn to read with him. Everyone should be able to read. The little button could read - and read real good.

Don't know what I'm gum flappin' about? Watch the movie.

Dog riding bicycle

Not to turn Liverputty into a Worlds Funniest Videos - and I know anyone can pilfer Video Google, but...a dog riding a bicycle.

Funny video

picked off from Ankle Biting Pundits. There's some foul language that may make it unsafe for work.

Nice!

Berlusconi goes out in song. (via Lucianne)

Dana Milbank exercises the bigotry of low expectations

It’s a shame that Hu’s visit sparked all those riots and brick throwings at the Chinese embassy. Wait. I’m reading from the wrong queue card. What were the outrages? Oh yeah, the national anthem was referred to as for the "Republic of China." SCANDAL! But the indignities didn’t stop there. Cheney wore sunglasses. SUNGLASSES! Bush tapped his foot during one of Hu’s answers during the Q & A. And when Hu was trying to crawl off stage, someone tackled him and kicked him in the gut and ripped his jacket off….though on camera it looked like they tugged on his jacket to show him the correct way to leave.

There were more atrocities. The absence of a Chinese flag from the lamp posts. A Falun Gong heckler, which the secret service took three minutes to silence and imprison for life. THREE MINUTES! Vice President Cheney could’ve sobered up and taken off his glasses and confessed to murdering his entourage in that time. Bush knew the gal was a Falun Gong crazy because five years ago she was up to the same heckling tricks - and we all know he scrupuously reads all the papers. Obviously, it was a plot to discredit Hu. When that newsfeed hits Chinese television airwaves, every Chinese subject is going to fetch their torch and will be looking for you know Hu.
Plus, Bush wouldn’t give Hu a dinner, only a lunch. And, to complete the indignities, Bush insisted that Hu wear floppy clown shoes and a rainbow colored wig at the press conference, which clashed with his “Free Tibet” lapel pin. Truly horrible. No wonder the man spent last night crying into his pillow - according to "senior administration officials"!

According to Milbank, this was all terribly costly, as it made Hu too upset to negotiate with later. As a result, Bush couldn’t get Hu to release all his political prisoners, free Tibet, let the KMT absorb the mainland, force N. Korea to give up on nukes, so on and so forth. If only we’d put a Chinese flag on the White House pole and given the man a dinner, we could’ve hade all that stuff! See, according to Milbank’s logic, Hu is too much of a wuss to suffer all those indignities and then turn around and negotiate like a man. By being so darned insensitive, we completely blew an opportunity to bring peace and harmony to the world.

Contrast that with Bush. No leader in the world today has been compared to Hitler more, respected less, called and idiot or a big meany as much, been heckled and shown the correct way off as many stages as him. Does it ever shake him? Does he ever not conduct himself in a professional manner? And if he did, would Milbank blame others and excuse Bush for not being in the mood to negotiate?

Nancy Pelosi is a piece of work

I commend her for being pretty consistent on China – though her trade deficit and China-owning-our-debt talking points are off the mark. How is it that she does not recognize that President Bush hardened the line on China, which was woefully soft under Clinton? Pelosi should not be confused by the pomp and ceremony; the kowtower is no longer in office.

Meanwhile, Reid blasts that unilateralist SOB President for not being unilateral enough. President Bush has been a dismal failure when it comes to winning Reid’s heart and mind. Notice how with Reid it cannot be done. Always. Can’t this, can’t that. He’s already removed the military option for Iran:

"We don't have the resources to do it " because of the ongoing war in Iraq."

Verily, An Epic Story Built Brick By Brick

Behold The Brick Testament! This is more compelling than a lot of epic Bible movies I've seen. Just Wow!

Dave at Garfield Ridge has a humorous post about early childhood crushes

I don't remember pre-Wonder Woman Linda Carter, but I do recall Wonder Woman, in all her lycra suit glory. Funny, her outfit gave me a curious sensation, but Daisy Duke's garb - similar in many ways - was somehow repulsive. Likewise, Lavern and Shirly probably delayed my interest in the opposite sex for a few years - ugh. But Erin Gray was all sorts of hot. That's right BUCK! (via Ace)

It's been several years, but I still miss Ari Fleischer

I never fully warmed up to Scott MClellan. Nothing personal, but he always looked nervous or fidgity. Fleischer gave the administration a face of confidence and strength, whereas McClellan seemed more on the defensive all the time. I couldn't complain about his performance beyond that since I wouldn't be able to handle the job of press secretary at all. I don't know how likely it is that Tony Snow might replace him, but I think he'd be a good pick.

The Peoples' organs

Gateway has a disturbing post on China harvesting organs from prisoners. A concentration camp in China is like a fish farm here. At this rate, China is a shoe in for the UN Human Rights Council.

Corrupting Our Bodily Fluids

Hey, maybe this is why I was never big on Gatorade. There is no regaining your innocence after this one. Probably NSFW. Via Garfield Ridge.