Pay a dog to burn down a hospital!

At The Crackpot Times we are huge homers and crazy. Lakers in six! There has been some shocking happenings in the playoffs, mainly the Mavs/Warriors and the brink of being swept Miami/Bulls. But if you have any doubt how huge the NFL is, think about how the biggest sports news today was probably the NFL Draft. I don't have much to say than "boo-hoo" about Brady "He shows courage in 24 point defeat!" Quinn and the Eagles picked up a QB who recently was bagging groceries at ShopRite.

The NFL draft now just reminds me of the massive Pat Tillman cover-up that is only just now being uncovered. Actually, take "uncovered" back and replace "reported on nationally". This Frank Rich column makes much of the timeline surrounding Tillman's death by friendly fire in relation to the exposure of the tortures at Abu Ghraib and other events in April 2004. This is a good point, but I think another, often unspoken reason was Tillman's death occuried the week of the NFL Draft. Why bother saying he was killed in a senseless, bizarre act of friendly fire when you could just say he died a hero, bury him, and hope the family never asks anymore questions? Here's a key section of Rich's column and this weeks White House Correspondents' Association dinner:

It’s the practice on these occasions that the president do his own comic shtick, but this year Mr. Bush made a grand show of abstaining, saying that the killings at Virginia Tech precluded his being a “funny guy.” Any civilian watching on TV could formulate the question left hanging by this pronouncement: Why did the killings in Iraq not preclude his being a “funny guy” at other press banquets we’ve watched on C-Span? At the equivalent Radio and Television Correspondents’ Association gala three years ago, the president contributed an elaborate (and tasteless) comic sketch about his failed search for Saddam’s W.M.D.

But the revelers in the ballroom last Saturday could not raise that discrepancy and challenge Mr. Bush’s hypocrisy; they could only clap. And so they served as captive dress extras in a propaganda stunt, lending their credibility to the president’s sanctimonious exploitation of the Virginia Tech tragedy for his own political self-aggrandizement on national television. Meanwhile the war was kept as tightly under wraps as the troops’ coffins.

But whatever, this is depressing sports and politics related stuff. Let's learn and laugh by watching this educational video about sloths. Enjoy!

Paradoies have so much to teach us about the NBA

Thanks SC! (who would like to draw your attention to Bynum in the upper left...)

Double double standards

Maybe you know about Luis Posada Carriles, maybe you don't. He is an anti-Castro activist with an extensive history with the CIA and has been accused of various acts of terrorism including the 1976 bombing of a Cuban airliner that killed 73 people. While in Venzualian jail awaiting to be put on trial for this crime he escaped and eventually showed up in the US. Where he was arrested for immigration violations and freed on bail.

So a suspected terrorist is found, and let go because, well, we're down with HIS terrorism. Needless to say this isn't going over well with some people and is providing a clear example of the hypocricy of American foreign policy that calls for the invasions of nations based on fears of attacks against "the homeland", but could care less about the daily violence inflicted elsewhere.

Of course it isn't just this that makes the US look like huge assholes, its the site of US reps yelling I HOPE IT'S YOUR FAMILY MEMBERS WHO DIE at other foreign, elected officials who have the adacity to question the legality of black prisons and secret rendition (torture) flights. When/if the next attack happens here, will anyone in the world really care?

I don't know, but I do know that Bush and his wife will climb on top of the burning bodies and remind us all how no one suffers like they do. NO ONE BITCHES!

And we're back!

So the festival "wrapped" (as they say in the biz) Sunday night. It was a pretty cool experience, interesting to be so involved in such a big production, and I got to see Deewar, which was amazing.

But I know you don't read this blog cause you care about me, you read it because....actually I have no idea why. Anyway, sorry for being away for a while, it won't happen often. In that vein, I would like to post some stuff sent by all you great (six) readers!

1. Ken Burns Hates Mexicans is a great blog not only for the obvious reasons, but because I think its the first blog ever to link here, like ever! A friend's of CG and based out of Echo Park its a site I'm going to keep reading because I'm down. He has a recent post about the latest THE F-IN WAR (Subtitle: These 17 hours are not meant to be comprehensive) and the hiring of well-known Chicano documentarian Hector Galan that points to the work of Defend the Honor on this issue. Check it out!

2. I don't agree with the argument made here about the irrelevancy of the NBA playoffs to mainstream America, but it is an interesting view and the comments section has a good exchange. I think its funny that the photo along with the post is of Kobe because here in Los Angeles you KNOW its the playoffs, even with this current group. I remember interviewing the head of programming for the American Cinematheque and him telling me during late April and May they usually had a noticeable drop off in attendance. Then again, this was during the three-peat years and as EV (who sent this post) said today, there probably won't be any playoff ball in LA this time next week...

3. SS told me about this amazing, amazing goal Lionel Messi scored a few days ago in the Copa Del Rey where he breaks down nearly half the team from the center of the field:

Obviously, the Maradona/World Cup comparisons are not over-hyped.

4. Yes FN, myspace has jumped the shark. Soon you won't be able to become president of the World Bank without having a myspace page AND personal blog. By the way, I'm half-way there World Bank board, keep me in mind!

5. It might not be true, but AT sends this angry, sad rant from the Best of Craigslist that reminds us to Fuck this Fucking Fucked War lead by the Fuckhead in Chief.

6. Okay, last thing from me: George McGovern has responded to my prediction regarding Cheney's eventual departure and up-ed it a Bush! From his Los Angeles Times Op-Ed:

The Vice President spoke with contempt of my '72 campaign, but he might do well to recall that I began that effort with these words: "I make one pledge above all others — to seek and speak the truth." We made some costly tactical errors after winning the nomination, but I never broke my pledge to speak the truth. That is why I have never felt like a loser since 1972. In contrast, Cheney and Bush have repeatedly lied to the American people.

It is my firm belief that the Cheney-Bush team has committed offenses that are worse than those that drove Nixon, Vice President Spiro Agnew and Atty. Gen. John Mitchell from office after 1972. Indeed, as their repeated violations of the Constitution and federal statutes, as well as their repudiation of international law, come under increased consideration, I expect to see Cheney and Bush forced to resign their offices before 2008 is over.

McGovern is a kind of a hero of mine, but I don't know about Bush being forced to resign before the end of his term. Homeboy says he doesn't CARE that people hate/disagree with everything he says and does. I don't think he's talked to a non-military public audience in MONTHS. He is so arrogant, entitled, callous, and delusional that it will take nothing short of a battalion to remove him willingly from office. It is kind of like saying the Lakers are going to beat the Suns this year. It could happen, I hope it happens, but it's a kind of crazy dream.

No more extremely long posts like this for a while, but I just wanted to point it out. With the end of one project and the avoidance of the next: the blog is back.

Bow before the power of the blog

Obviously there is a straight line from this to this. I guess I shouldn't be too celebratory, it is a dark day for making jokes mocking someone's race or sex. Without our hilarious dumb blonde, "me so sorreh...", "Obama is a pimp, really!", and "boner-nosed, beanie-wearing Jew boy" jokes, the terrorist have won. There is lots to say about this, like how in the last moments Imus began to show real bitterness at people like Harold Ford, Jr. not standing up for him. You know what, after showing scenes from Birth of a Nation to students in section today, I'm over slamming Don Imus. So much has changes, and really, so much hasn't. Imus is a loser and I'm happy a career of belittling others humanity has lead him to this humiliation. And I'm not sorry. Okay, last thing, this post from Digby and this post from Athenae from First Draft best sums up the role of the national (white) news media and their role as enablers in all of this.

What I'm not letting go though is how lame its the Olympics are in China next year. Well, not lame cause the Olympics are lame. How to describe it...Mia Farrow?

Ms. Farrow, a good-will ambassador for the United Nations Children’s Fund, has played a crucial role, starting a campaign last month to label the Games in Beijing the “Genocide Olympics” and calling on corporate sponsors and even Mr. Spielberg, who is an artistic adviser to China for the Games, to publicly exhort China to do something about Darfur. In a March 28 op-ed article in The Wall Street Journal, she warned Mr. Spielberg that he could “go down in history as the Leni Riefenstahl of the Beijing Games,” a reference to a German filmmaker who made Nazi propaganda films.

Apparently activist like Farrow have put enough pressure on the Chinese government to actually distance themselves from the Sudanese government. The Chinese official that traveled Sudan to give them the message though also made a point to say:

During a news conference on Wednesday, Mr. Zhai called activists who want to boycott the Games “either ignorant or ill natured.”

That's funny because "Ignorant or ill natured" was an alternate name for this blog when it started.

Is Smush Bush then?

Kobe just blew your mind:

BRYANT CONCEDES

Lakers guard Kobe Bryant was asked if he's pulling himself out of the running for Most Valuable Player.

"Yeah," Bryant said. "I'm Al Gore-ing myself."

Bryant, who was getting some support for MVP after a March scoring spree, doesn't believe the Lakers (40-38) have a good enough record for him to be considered.

"I don't think so," Bryant said. "I'd like to one day be fortunate enough to win the MVP and be on a team that has one of the best records in the NBA to do so."

Thanks to SC for sending me this. Is he "giving up" like Al Gore, or is saying he's been railroaded like Gore? I personally think he's saying he's not interested, but secretly wants to be wooed into the race as the obvious solid choice against the inevitable and the still unproven. You know what I'm saying!

Speaking of Los Angeles and tortured connections, the LA Times has a nice article about the you-are-here.com guy. He's a German engineer who spends his vacation time visiting LA, taking architecture photos around town, and putting them on the web. Check out the site, seriously it's really cool. Except for his leaving out Little Aremenia, what's up with that?!

Only small men where cowboy hats, indoors, on-air, in NYC

Imus might have just told his last not-funny, actually pretty insulting racial "joke". For those of you who don't know, Don Imus is a daytime nationally syndicated radio show that is simulcasted on MSNBC. Many years ago he and Stern were the battling local shock jocks, and after Stern pretty much beat his brains in ratings, Imus took a strange, more "respectable", political turn, but kept its high school level of humor. He couldn't run with Stern, so now he does his same lame material (jokes about blacks being monkeys and women being dumb whores, funny stuff) but with Senators and Tim Russert. Stern gets George Takei and fined millions for cursing; Imus gets Joe Lieberman, does comedy consisting of racial slurs, and is seen as a "get" in the cable news machine.

The recent controversy is over him calling the Rutgers women's bball team a bunch of "nappy-headed hos". You see, that's the joke, funny right? The big problem for Imus this time though is this isn't the first time and he might have finally exposed himself in a way that isn't easy to dismiss. Cause see, calling a bunch of black women athletes hos isn't really funny, that was a trick! It really isn't being, gasp, non-PC! Its sort of like also laughing as your guest rifts that "The more I look at Rutgers, they look exactly like the [National Basketball Association's] Toronto Raptors": it's a bigoted, insulting, and, the most important, NOT FUNNY!

Is the big old bad National Association of Black Journalists piling on by calling for a boycott of his show? Even after his wonderful apology where he said the comments were "ill-conceived" and "inappropriate"? (By the way, your mother is subhuman and you are a skank. You know what, that was ill-conceived, let's move on!) There is this lovely section from Imus's wiki page:

Imus and his crew, Charles McCord and Bernard McGuirk, are frequently accused of racism, misogyny, and homophobia. Imus referred to sports columnist Bill Rhoden as a "New York Times quota hire" and PBS anchor Gwen Ifill as a "cleaning lady".[5] Imus has repeatedly referred to Arabs as "ragheads."[6] He has berated many female newsreaders, most recently being his last one, which caused her, Contessa Brewer, to quit the show. After she quit or was fired, depending on who you believe, Imus went on a tirade. “With that fat ass she’s got, she wouldn’t be one of ‘em,” (a beautiful woman). Imus said on the air, "That skank has to spend three hours with makeup in the morning." That tirade was also tied to comments that were overheard of Contessa calling Imus “a cantankerous old fool” at some dinner in a restaurant in 2005, when she was the newsreader.[7]

There was an interesting story on On The Media about Imus's game of serious/racist split. The "shockingly bad taste" here is saying the Williams sisters are "animals" that should be in National Geographic instead of Playboy.

BROOKE GLADSTONE: Earlier this summer one of Imus's second bananas, Sid Rosenberg, made a joke in shockingly bad taste about tennis players Serena and Venus Williams. Imus fired him. And then promptly re-hired him. He explained that back in the bad old days of his own drug and alcohol abuse, people gave him about 50 second chances. Imus is all about forgiveness. But he admitted in an interview with Mike Wallace a few years back that he hired his staff to make racist jokes.

MIKE WALLACE: You told Tom ANDERSON, the producer, in your car coming home that Bernard McGuirk is there to do "nigger" jokes.

DON IMUS: Well I've n-- I never use that word.

MIKE WALLACE: Tom?

TOM ANDERSON: I'm right here.

DON IMUS: Did I use that word?

TOM ANDERSON: I recall you using that word.

DON IMUS: Oh, okay, well then I used that word, but I mean-- of course that was an off the record conversation-- [LAUGHTER]

MIKE WALLACE: The hell it was!

The fact this On The Media story was from 2001 (!) you get the idea Imus might have reached the end of all the morning zoo forgiveness. Al Sharpton is going to start picketing his studios tomorrow, and I'm not to sure Imus's response will be reasoned and measured. Especially when Sharpton says about Imus's apology,

"I accept his apology, just as I want his bosses to accept his resignation,"

Then again, we should never underestimate the lack of concern of slurring blacks in the national media. Chris Matthews, Senator McCain, see you soon!



UPDATE: Atrios provides an example from THIS MORNING that proves my point above. Howard Fineman, a Newsweek columnist, says its a "different time" because Obama made a lot of money, and Imus exposes the hypocracy of the NABJ for not being interested in his fight against sickle cell anemia!

Yes, this is the weak stuff he's bringing. I think he's going to dust off the good ol' I'M NOT A RACISTS, THAT'S WHAT SO INSANE ABOUT THIS!

Two weeks till the NBA's crowning drama

Hype for the playoffs. It's not for Game 4 Lakers v. Suns, but its from (for me) the second most epic game of the playoffs last year, scored by Arcade Fire. EV found it during his 5 hours a day looking on YouTube for Mavs stuff.



And while I'm stealing/HYPING EV, he's right, this Free Darko post about Kobe is awesome! Kobe for MDGFP!

Y yo pensé que hablo espanol terrible!

Newt Gingrich is standing up for English in the United States (about time someone did!).

"The American people believe English should be the official language of the government. ... We should replace bilingual education with immersion in English so people learn the common language of the country and they learn the language of prosperity, not the language of living in a ghetto," Gingrich said to cheers from the crowd of more than 100.

Wow, 100 people! Anyway, apparently people don't like hear their mother tongue is the obvious language of poor, dispossessed people. Or blacks, or Jews. Actually "the language of the ghetto" is not entirely clear what he means other than "America ain't that shit, and if it is, it's poor Americans who probably deserve it!" Gingrich did issue a "I'm sorry you don't understand my point" non-apology...wait for it....in SPANISH! OH DAMN, DIDN'T SEE THAT COMING!! WHAT, WHAT?! or QUÉ, QUÉ?!



So let's sum up: "Hey 100 members of the National Federation of Republican Women (Federation? Sounds classy!), Spanish is weird, poor people in bad neighborhoods speak it!....Yo, hombre! I shouldn't have said Spanish is from the ghetto, I should have said English rules and you should totally learn it! But Spanish is cool, check it, I've been learning it to reach out to you fast breeding LEGAL immigrants! Muchos gracias, de nada!"

This is the untenable position the GOP is in, the way the country is changing they can't keep winning national elections with white males. Even Bush understands this. But how do you reach out to other groups when so much of your message is based on dividing groups (GAYS! FEMINISTS! SCARY BLACKS! JOB STEALING ASIANS! DIRTY SPANISH SPEAKERS! IMMIGRANTS THAT I DO NOT PERSONALLY KNOW! OMG, DIFFERENCE!). It ends up causing candidates to publicly diss a language, and then dropping a YouTube video speaking that same language.

Its kind of like being an all around sleaze ball, like divorcing your wife as she gets cancer treatment or having an affair while you are leading an impeachment of a US President for having an affair, and then "confessing" about all of it to a conservative Christian POLITICAL leader to prep for a 2008 White House run. Eat it Federation, this man has your class right here.

Tony P!

Giving a bad name to French hip-hop!


(thanks EV...I guess)

On the Tony Parker related front, the AOL Fanhouse NBA blog had a post a few weeks ago calling Parker annoying (agreed!) and theorized its because he's French (don't know about that, but why not!). What's great about this is after getting attacked for Francophobia, Parker's coach, Greg Popovich complained about essentially the same thing. He actually said Parker is too "laissez-faire" with his training and attitude.

This reminds me: Caché is sick!

And this is a great magazine cover

Adam Nagourney is gay?

I just love this image

Ken Burns is a jerk

Seriously, what is up with this guy? Ken Burns of the Ken Burns effect has been spending four years putting together his 17 hour (SEVENTEEN HOURS!) documentary series for PBS about WWII from "the bottom up" with extensive interviews and research. Apparently the series, titled The War, doesn't include a single interview with a Latino soldier who fought in WWII, even though there were lots of them involved in key battles (like the Philippines) and they won more Congressional Medals of Honor than any other ethnic group in proportion to the total. People are pissed. And people understand why they are pissed:

“If you had to hit a sore point in the Latino community, this is it,” said Chon Noriega, a filmmaker and associate director of the Chicano Studies Research Center at the University of California in Los Angeles. “The Second World War,” he said, “is where the community felt it had earned the right to citizenship that had been denied since 1848,” the end of the Mexican-American War.

“This is a critical turning point in their recognition as citizens and they’re not there” in Burns’ series, Noriega said. “You can understand why people would be upset.” PBS is a “public entity receiving public funding to describe this history and they’re just not there in the image.”

Now I'm not sure about making PBS change the documentary series like some are calling for, and if this is Ken Burns "vision", the last thing we would want to do is pollute the artist's vision! I guess.

What really bothers me is Burn's response to these complaints as "it's not that kind of movie":

The filmmakers weren’t looking for representatives of specific ethnic groups. “That is not what the film is about,” Burns said. “It’s about the experience of combat from the perspectives of a handful of people—most of whom are from [the four towns focused on].”
...
“People, when they see the film, they will see the universality,” Burns said. “The comments that people make are not based on their ethnicity but on their humanity.”

Besides belonging in the Colbert realm ("People say I'm white, but I don't see race"), the quote from Burns shows he fundamentally does not get the point of the protests. These groups aren't looking for Latino representation in the film as a victory on some PC checklist somewhere, but want acknowledgment of Latinos' inclusion within this great American universality/humanity. Acting as if Latinos fighting for America in World War II (or Vietnam, or Iraq today) is some kind of one-off, minor story that fails to capture the true essence of what the war meant belittles those soldiers and the ideas they were/are supposedly dying for.

At seventeen hours (SEVENTEEN FUCKING HOURS!) to not have ONE interview with a Latino soldier and to actively argue against it shows a real, and frankly bizarre, refusal to acknowledge these groups as really American. If you think that's not true, just take a saunter at the message boards on the Free Republic about this issue. Lots of great stuff! Latinos were fighting, and dying, as Americans, together with other Americans. Now when they and their representative groups ask to be remembered as part of the "greatest generation", they are labeled as trying to divide the country, not being loyal, or required to prove, once again, their claims to American history being their history too.

Why not just be cool Ken Burns and find some time in your seventeen hour (seriously, seventeen hours?!) doc for this story? Its telling when the best argument against this is the ridiculous "well, what about representing transgender people or people with bad hair cuts???" (actually said). We aren't talking about that you moron, we are talking about this topic, about Latinos, about how they have been citizens and an active part of the nation's history for hundreds of years but are still treated like they and their families just got here and are stealing Medicaid. Media obviously creates these public perceptions, especially historical, "good for you" multi-hour public broadcast programming that merely maintains national myths of a certain type of American saving the world in the 1940s.

I say let's move on to the next battle: trying to include Latino non-US citizens who died during Operation Iraqi Freedom in Burns's planned 20 hour series for 2016.

Bob Kraft, Paul Allen, 5 NFL fans, and this guy devastated

Peter King, the Bob Woodward of the NFL, is reporting on SI.com that the NFL pre-season game this August to be played in China between the Pats and Seahawks has been canceled. Did the NFL decide it is somewhat distasteful to promote their mixture of graphic violence and hyper commercialism in a nation full of people getting by on dollars a day who might be thrown in prison for years for suggesting things like voting for their leaders and being able to question their decisions? Um...sorta. They'll wait till after the Olympics do it!

And the league won't take just a one-year hiatus from the Asian experiment, according to those with knowledge of plans for the game the NFL was calling the China Bowl. Because the Summer Olympics are set for Beijing in 2008, the league will skip 2008 and look to put a game in Olympic Stadium, now under construction, in the summer of 2009. The Pats and Seahawks were to have played Aug. 7 (the morning of Aug. 8 in the United States) in the well-worn Workers Stadium in Beijing, built in 1959 and renovated three years ago.

It's too bad, because I can't wait till the NFL opens up the Chinese nation to democracy and freedom and all that good stuff, like how electronic products and manufacturing have done so far! I'm sure the Communist Party would love to learn more about how to better deal with their own Pat Tillman situations.

And their white!

Even the Dutch like Snoop over Bill O'Reilly...