Weekend Q of the day - at the (bad) movies

A weekend open thread to stimulate discussion...

What is the worst movie that you've ever seen that you paid full price to see in a theatre (this eliminates the garden-variety bad video selections).

Also: did you sit through the whole thing? Have you ever walked out on a flim? Read the rest of this post...

Check out the week's editorial cartoons -- and a shout out to Bob Geiger

Bob Geiger has posted his weekly compilation of the week's best editorial cartoons. As usual, there are some that will make you laugh out loud.

Bob also includes a personal note in his intro to the cartoons. Seems our good friend is taking a breather:

I turned 50 earlier this month. And, while it is not written that hitting the half-century mark should be a time of great reflection, it seems as good a time as any to reevaluate my direction and decide how I would like the next decades to look.

Based on such an assessment, I have decided to take an extended break from writing this blog and covering the United States Senate. In addition to needing time to consider where I would like to go from here in my writing career, I feel a real imperative to make my physical fitness and health a greater priority.

Over two years of essentially working two full-time jobs -- like many bloggers, I also work a corporate day job -- and getting an average of four hours of sleep a night doesn't cut it for me any longer. But without any support or funding for our efforts, the vast majority of liberal bloggers do this for free, using every spare hour and minute, in the hope of changing the direction of our country and being a loud voice toward that end. But that level of devotion -- obsession? -- is not unlimited and, for each of us, it has a finite lifespan based on how long we hold off exhaustion and avoid burn-out.

That time has come for me.

One of the great things about writing on AMERICAblog has been the opportunity to meet so many very cool and great people who share the same world view. Bob Geiger is one of them. He's truly an amazing man. I've said several times that Bob knows more about the U.S. Senate than most Senators and a whole lot of Senate staffers. It's true. We've all benefitted from his work -- and hopefully will again soon. Bob promised that this isn't good-bye and there may be some "wild stuff" to come. We hope so. Read the rest of this post...

Bush to America: You're expecting too much progress in Iraq. It's only been a couple months.

The problem we have here is that George Bush has lied to the American people about every single aspect of the Iraq war. Why should we start believing him now?

U.S. President George W. Bush, faced with growing calls to start withdrawing U.S. troops from Iraq, pleaded with Americans on Saturday for patience and cited progress in the past two months.

"The success of the past couple of months have shown that conditions on the ground can change -- and they are changing," he said in his weekly radio address. "We cannot expect the new strategy we are carrying out to bring success overnight."

A couple of months? It's been four and a half years.

I'm starting to get the feeling that Bush is like Effie in Dreamgirls when she belts out the show stopper "And I Am Telling You I'm Not Going." Bush is telling us he's not leaving Iraq. No matter what anyone tells Bush, he's going to see progress in Iraq -- and he's not going. Read the rest of this post...

Bush's Defense Dept. setting up "war room" -- to spin the war, not figure out how to end it

If the Bush administration spent a fraction of the time on Iraq policy that spends on Iraq politics and p.r., we might not be in this mess. Their latest venture is setting up a full time spin operation at the Pentagon:

Shaping the Bush administration’s message on the Iraq war has taken on new fervor, just as anticipation is building for the September progress report from top military advisers.

For the Pentagon, getting out Iraq information will now include a 24-hour-a-day, seven-day-a-week Iraq Communications Desk that will pump out data from Baghdad — serving as what could be considered a campaign war room.

A campaign war room for the war. That's the Bush administration in action. Read the rest of this post...

Haggard, Families With a Mission, and the sex offender

What on earth is that headline about? You'll recall that Ted Haggard, the former male escort client and meth purchaser, has started a new life in Arizona. The former head of New Life Church -- and graduate of a miraculous Dobson-approved three-week de-gaying program -- is also asking followers for a handout in a boldly insane letter (his $138K New Life severance will be cut off after the end of the year). In it he says:

Any help we can get with this will be greatly appreciated and, I believe, rewarded in heaven.

Haggard asks that checks be sent to an outfit called "Families With a Mission" in Colorado Springs with a separate note indicating the funds are for the Haggard family...

then Families With a Mission will mail us 90% of the funds for support and use 10% for administrative costs,

There's one problem. Actually several. Dan Savage at Slog passes on this mind-blowing news:

As posted earlier, local attorney and Slog reader Dave Coffman located documents on file with the Colorado Secretary of State that showed Families With a Mission "voluntarily dissolved" on February 23, 2007.

Hm. Weird -- who knew you could get a tax deduction from dissolved charity?

And it gets weirder: There's only one name on file with the Colorado Secretary of State in connection with Families With a Mission: Paul Huberty.

Huberty is the "registered agent" of Families With a Mission and the registered agent's mailing address -- POB 63125, Colorado Springs, CO 80962-3125 -- is the same address Haggard included in his letter to his supporters. Another address on file with the Colorado Secretary of State for Families With a Mission is 855 Pebble Creek Ct., Monument, CO 80132. That's the charity's "principal office mailing address."

Sigh. As with these fundie stories, you know we have not yet reached the moral values bottom of matters. Slog reader Dave Coffman did some investigating in public records and found out that Paul G. Huberty was convicted of "sodomy and indecent acts" with "a 17-year-old female who accompanied appellant and his family to Germany as his legal ward" (PDF here) while he was in the military and stationed there. When he moved to Hawaii, he had to register as a sex offender.

When Huberty left Hawaii, the forwarding address he left is -- you guessed it -- the address for the now-dissolved charity Families With a Mission.

Surf over to Slog -- there's plenty more. Read the rest of this post...