Ohio is resisting recount

These Ohio Republicans are as dirty as the day is long. A recount is "insulting," they now say. What are these people, 5 year old children? Ohio law spells out the conditions for a recount, and Badnarik met the conditions and paid the money you require. Now they argue that the law doesn't matter because, gosh, their feelings are hurt? Well guess what - my feelings are hurt that Bush is still president. Get over it and obey the damn law. These people are criminals. Read the rest of this post...

The Greeks are pissed that Alexander was bi

Well, ok, they're actually pissed that Oliver Stone revealed that Alexander was bisexual in Stone's new movie, Alexander. A bunch of Greek lawyers are getting together and threatening to sue if the movie doesn't include a disclaimer or some such thing, saying that there is no proof that Alexander was gay (the Greek lawyers are saying that bi is gay - whatever). Being Greek-America, and gay, I'm pretty proud of Alexander being bi. So there.

And contrary to the bullshit coming from the Greeks, the Wash Post says Alexander was bi as a... well, he was bi.

Then, there was the question of how to honestly portray Alexander's lifelong male crush -- Platonic and erotic -- on Hephaistion, which was notable even at the time. (One ancient wag suggested that Alexander was never defeated, "except by Hephaistion's thighs.") Alexander's contemporaries appear to have remarked upon his excessive mourning and elaborate funeral arrangements for dear, recently dead (probably from typhoid) Hephaistion. Alexander is said to have mooned around the palace for weeks, cut off his hair and hair from the manes and tails of his horses, and declared that Hephaistion would be worshiped as a divine hero....

As for the bisexuality, Fox says the historical accounts certainly support the love relationship between Hephaistion and Alexander. Homosexuality was an intricate part of the pre-Christian Greek world, well established, and sanctioned by state and cultural norms, especially the relationships between older men and teens. Where Alexander may have differed was that his affair with Hephaistion was lifelong and between men of roughly the same age.

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Monday evening thread

Have you hugged a red state today? Read the rest of this post...

I'm out of town for the week - Thanksgiving - FYI

So my posts might be interimittent. Hopefully the rest of the gang will keep you up to date on staff - I'll still be checking in several times a day. JOHN Read the rest of this post...

Post's Tom Shales ATTACKS Michael Powell

Another GREAT article. This one from the Washington Post's TV critic Tom Shales, taking on the FCC's Michael "Son of Colin" Powell. Again, read the entire article - it's like a fine rollercoaster, just keeps building and building, going faster and faster. Read it.

Oops. They got rid of the wrong Powell. The father unfortunately is going, but the son, even more unfortunately, remains behind.

Colin Powell, as most Americans know, has "resigned" his position as secretary of state, though few in the inner circle of the coldhearted Bush administration will likely be shedding tears at his departure. Staying in office, however, and capable of wreaking havoc in American broadcasting until 2007, is Colin's son Michael Powell, chairman of the Federal Communications Commission and definitely not a force for good in America....

There was according to legend a face that launched a thousand ships. This is about a nipple that inflamed a thousand nut cases. Janet Jackson's brief breast exposure during halftime of this year's Super Bowl has led to hundreds of thousands of dollars in fines, a wave of hypocritical hysteria with which Democrats as well as Republicans are only too happy to be associated, and a state of affairs that boils down to open season on the First Amendment, the bedrock of the Bill of Rights....

The madness reached its appalling apotheosis on Veterans Day: Sixty-five of ABC's 220 owned or affiliated stations declined to air the universally praised Steven Spielberg film "Saving Private Ryan," about American heroes of World War II, because the verboten F-word is spoken several times, and the FCC now fines stations sometimes astronomical amounts if even a few people file complaints over what they have heard.

This means Spielberg's acclaimed Holocaust film, "Schindler's List," cannot be shown again on a broadcast network because it, too, contains unpleasant language and, of course, graphic violence. See, it's about the Nazis, and they tended to be a little pushy. But realism is no defense, artistic excellence is no defense, even a consensus that the program in question constitutes a public service is no defense....

And it just gets better. Read it. Read the rest of this post...

No Class

That's our boy, rebuilding those relationships one by one:

President Bush's distaste for news conferences isn't limited to his own backyard.

After he and Colombian President Alvaro Uribe answered four questions here Monday, Bush sought to end the session by saying, "Thank you very much."

Maybe he was just eager to get to his Texas ranch, where he planned to spend the Thanksgiving holiday. Or, maybe he just can't keep his dislike for question-and-answer sessions buttoned up abroad any more than he can at home.

Uribe seemed willing to take more questions. "Do you want to get in one more?" he asked Bush.

"That's plenty," Bush said. "No. Thank you."

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DeLay May Escape Indictment

CBS News is reporting Tom DeLay may not be indicted after all. See, he allegedly only knew about the illegal fundraising activity, he didn't actually promote it. A true paragon of virtue that Tom DeLay. According to CBS:

Texas law forbids labor unions and corporations to fund such legislative campaigns. Travis County District Attorney Ronnie Earle alleges that the three Delay associates and eight corporations violated the law by illegally funneling money into these races.

A review of documents made public through civil litigation indicate DeLay was kept aware of the fundraising activities that were taking place. (DeLay’s daughter was a paid consultant to two fund-raising committees that pumped money into the races.)

Nevertheless, the official familiar with investigation said investigators would have to establish that DeLay "acted to promote" the illegal activity, and that such evidence had not been forthcoming.

"To indict and prosecute someone, we have to be able to show not just that they were aware of something," the official explained. "We have to show that they engaged in enough conduct to make them party to the offense."

But remember, even if DeLay is indicted, thanks to the first post-election act of the House Republicans, he can keep his leadership position.

This is shaping up to be the APCA* Congress.

*Absolute power corrupts absolutely Read the rest of this post...

ACTION ALERT: Anyone up for kicking all sports off TV?

I'm serious. What about creating our own family values group, with the goal of kicking off TV any sport that broadcasts fights live. This would include hockey, basketball, football and baseball, among others. We could start with the NBA's little scuffle the other night. Clearly this kind of real and real-time violence is not the kind of thing innocent basketball viewers should be seeing on their television. And it's not like the NBA and other sports leagues can claim they didn't expect the fight. Come on. Is this the first fight to break out in sports? I think no.

The NBA could have had a 10 second delay with orders NEVER to broadcast a fight. They didn't. Instead they chose to broadcast a real fight to unsuspecting Christian children across America (forget about those Jewish kids, I understand their children drink our blood).

So, my not so modest proposal is for us to take on every complaint we can find and make the FCC investigate it. Perhaps overwhelming the FCC with complaints, and threatening the Red States' own TV shows, will finally bring this religious jihad home for millions of Americans.

In spite of the modest proposal reference, I'm quite serious. Let's do this.

ACTION
So here's what we do.
1. Check your local listings and find out what channel and time the Pacers vs. Pistons game played in your area last Friday night, November 19, and also find out the call sign of station (i.e., WNBC) or whatever).

2. Use this Web form, or send an email to request that the Federal Communications Commission levy sanctions against the NBA and your local station for broadcasting inappropriate subject matter on nationwide television.

A sample letter:

Dear Chairman Powell:

I wish to file a complaint against the NBA and my local TV affiliate that broadcast last the Friday November 19, 2004 Pacers vs. Pistons basketball game on live TV.

I wish to stress to you in the most severe terms, my incredible outrage at this kind of broadcast that incites the more unstable in society to use violence as an option in settling disputes. This incident is FAR more dangerous to society than a bare breast at the super bowel and deserves even more attention than that given Janet Jackson. Lives ARE lost due to violence, and the NBA and my local affiliate should not be broadcasting LIVE violence on television, especially when it is fully aware of the propensity for fights to break out during its games. Why no ten second delay? Why no standard orders to the cameramen to NOT film fights when they happen? No, the NBA and my local affiliate wantonly broadcast real violence real-time on my TV in order to titillate its viewers. That is obscene and unChristian.

I hereby request your office to conduct an investigation and to levy appropriate fines against the NBA and the Television stations that broadcast this incitement to violence. Please advise me of your intentions regarding this complaint.

Sincerely,

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Religious right to seek legislation to punish Hollywood?

Today's Washington Post reports on the radical right's attack on the new movie about Kinsey. What the Post fails to report is that the freaks have been trying to smear Kinsey for at least ten years. They hope that by undermining the father of the sexual revolution they can undermine sex itself. Kind of a large point to miss, but oh well.

In any case, check out this little admission from Robert Knight, the chief anti-gay bigot of the religious right. Sounds like they now want to get laws passed by Congress that somehow punishes Hollywood every time it makes a movie the religious right doesn't like.

I'm serious folks, it's time to strike back, hard, against these little Hitlers.

Robert Knight, director of the conservative Culture and Family Institute in Washington, said evangelical Christian and Roman Catholic groups also want to bring to bear the political clout they demonstrated in the presidential election.

"Just as Reagan was not content to contain communism but announced a rollback, pro-family organizations are not content to protest the latest outrage anymore, but will seek legislation and will punish sponsors of lewd entertainment," he said.

Knight acknowledged, however, that some opponents of the Kinsey film may be reluctant to try to punish its distributor, Fox Searchlight, owned by conservative media mogul Rupert Murdoch.

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Who dares call into a TV network to complain about sex? And can they be stopped?

An amazing column in last Friday's San Francisco Chronicle. Very difficult to excerpt, it's that good. Please read the entire story.

Monday Night Softcore:
Who dares call into a TV network to complain about sex? And can they be stopped?

Do you know who they are? Do you already have an answer?

Can you say who it is, really, who shrieks and cries and calls into the networks regarding "racy" advertising during macho ultraviolent NFL games, calling it sinful and wrong and hurtful? Can someone tell me? Is it a deep unknowable secret? Is it perhaps the most baffling and exasperating question of our age?

Because we need to know. We need to know because I know no one who does this and you know no one who does this and we all understand that most normal and relatively well-adjusted citizens of this fine and deeply jaded nation don't navigate the world wielding such a shockingly uptight and sexually destitute worldview. At least, not around here they don't....

But here's the problem: These people, these groups, these sects of viciously concerned and violently moral people now appear to be the single most powerful and dangerous and rash-inducing hunk of our society today, and that includes fans of either Paris Hilton or Dave Matthews or Axe male body spray.

Why do we need to know? Because these people, they apparently now have the ear of the FCC and hold in their dry fingers the shriveled testicles of most major media conglomerates and they own the very flop sweat adorning the forehead of pasty demon-god Karl Rove, and they are the drawled barely articulated expression of gratitude muttered under the breath the aww-shucks born-again president of the United States. Is why.

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GOP fails in attempt to stop counting ballots in Washington

In a very close election, seperated by only 261 votes, the GOP filed to stop hand counting. The argument was related to the issues of recounting electronic votes versus recounting punch cards or other forms. Fortunately the GOP lost in court but with all of the voting irregularities recently, the Democrats need to seize this issue and make it a hot topic in 2006 or 2008. As it stands today there are just too many opportunities for abuse with our elections. It is incredible to think that we have no legitimacy in offering advice or criticism with corrupt elections such as we are probably witnessing in the Ukraine.
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