Jodie Foster To Play Leni Riefenstahl

This should be interesting:

Oscar-winning actress Jodie Foster will play the leading role of Riefenstahl in a work that is bound to generate immense argument, as it examines the beautiful woman who became Adolf Hitler's favourite director and whose slick propaganda helped the Nazi war machine.

The on-again, off-again project has been in the works for at least seven years, but now a script is being written - by British writer Rupert Walters - and a director is being negotiated. People involved in the movie say the director should be announced within two or three months and shooting should start by the end of next year at the latest. 'I am hoping to be shooting before then,' said Gabriele Bacher, a producer at Primary Pictures, who will make the film along with Foster's own company.

Yet Another Big Scandal Brewing

From the Washington Post:

Miz Julia was the pseudonym for Deborah Jeane Palfrey, the woman at the center of a sex scandal that has caused a deputy secretary of state to resign and has lawyers calling around town trying to keep their clients' names out of public view. A one-time law student, Palfrey ran for 13 years what she insists was a legal escort service. Federal prosecutors allege she was providing $300-an-hour prostitutes, and a grand jury indicted her in February on federal racketeering charges. * * *

Randall Tobias was the deputy secretary of state who resigned over this. He immediately invoked Rev. Ted Haggard's "It Was Only A Massage" Defense:

On Friday, Randall L. Tobias resigned as deputy secretary of state one day after confirming to Brian Ross of ABC that he had patronized the Pamela Martin firm. Speaking yesterday on "Good Morning America," Ross said Tobias told him Tobias's number was on Palfrey's phone records because he had called "to have gals come over to the condo to give me a massage." There had been "no sex," Ross quoted Tobias as saying, and that recently he has used another service, "with Central American gals," for massages.

Tobias, who is 65 and married, was director of U.S. Foreign Assistance and administrator of the U.S. Agency for International Development. He previously held a top job in the Bush administration overseeing AIDS relief, in which he promoted abstinence and a policy requiring grant recipients to swear they oppose prostitution.

More revelations are apparently on their way with regard to the "10,000 to 15,000 phone numbers" on Palfrey's list: "Ross said the list includes the names of some 'very prominent people,' as well as a number of women with 'important and serious jobs' who had worked as escorts for the firm."

Unlike all of the other recent scandals, however, this one will probably not be limited to Republicans. As Josh Marshall notes:

Some people are downright giddy that the Bush Administration is about to be ensnared in another scandal. But I would remind them that nothing is more bipartisan than sexual indiscretion.

Tap Into Global Warming

Spinal Tap is reuniting in support of global warming -- I mean, in support of being against global warming.


Oh hell, just watch the video.

The Whore And The Slut

The Whore (David Broder).

The Slut (Michelle Malkin).

Oh, This Will Be Good (Maybe)

From MSNBC:

A House committee voted Wednesday to grant immunity to Monica Goodling, a key aide to Attorney General Alberto Gonzales during the firings of eight U.S. attorneys. She had refused to testify, invoking her Fifth Amendment rights against self-incrimination.

The 32-6 vote by the House Judiciary Committee surpassed the two-thirds majority required to grant a witness immunity from prosecution. A separate vote to authorize a subpoena for Goodling passed by voice vote. * * *

I would have been happy merely watching Goodling repeatedly take the Fifth, but now it looks like we'll get much more than that.

I think that Goodling had a lot more involvement in PurgeGate than Gonzales did -- after all, Goodling was the Justice Department's liaison to the White House, and it is clear that the White House (i.e., Karl Rove) was calling the shots with regard to this particular scandal. Of course, she is a former Bush Administration official, which probably means she is an accomplished liar, but maybe her Christian faith will overcome her desire to lie.

Oh wait -- forget what I just wrote. Goodling, it turns out, is a graduate of Regent University, which was founded by Pat Robertson. She'll lie her ass off.

Go Get 'Em

From the LA Times:

Most of the time, an obscure federal investigative unit known as the Office of Special Counsel confines itself to monitoring the activities of relatively low-level government employees, stepping in with reprimands and other routine administrative actions for such offenses as discriminating against military personnel or engaging in prohibited political activities.

But the Office of Special Counsel is preparing to jump into one of the most sensitive and potentially explosive issues in Washington, launching a broad investigation into key elements of the White House political operations that for more than six years have been headed by chief strategist Karl Rove.

The new investigation, which will examine the firing of at least one U.S. attorney, missing White House e-mails, and White House efforts to keep presidential appointees attuned to Republican political priorities, could create a substantial new problem for the Bush White House. * * *

This is the same outfit that is looking into whether U.S. Attorney David Iglesias was wrongfully terminated due to his Navy Reserve duty, which I think is funny as hell because everybody knows that Iglesias was fired for political reasons. According to the White House, though, the "real" reason he was fired was because he missed a lot of work due to his Navy Reserve duty, which, of course, would be unlawful grounds to fire someone.

Oops.

Karl Rove -- First-Class Prick

At last weekend's White House Correspondents Dinner, Sheryl Crow and Laurie David tried to have a conversation with Karl Rove on the issue of global warming. The discussion started out combative, and then it just got weird:

In his attempt to dismiss us, Mr. Rove turned to head toward his table, but as soon as he did so, Sheryl reached out to touch his arm. Karl swung around and spat, "Don't touch me." How hardened and removed from reality must a person be to refuse to be touched by Sheryl Crow? Unphased, Sheryl abruptly responded, "You can't speak to us like that, you work for us." Karl then quipped, "I don't work for you, I work for the American people." To which Sheryl promptly reminded him, "We are the American people."

OK, I guess we already knew Rove was an asshole, but geesus. Perhaps BushCo's "Political Genius" is a little grouchy these days given that everything he touches now turns to shit.

And Karl, since you are working for the American people and all, maybe you can explain to us what the hell you and the Idiot-In-Chief were thinking the other day when Bush did this:

George Bush stood up in front of the public with cameras rolling and by all appearances gave away our positions to the enemy. This wasn't a careless slip of the tongue either. He displayed a prepared map with arrows marking the locations of two dozen new US outposts in and around Baghdad -- with major streets and landmarks thrown in for reference. Keep that in mind when those locales get hit and the routes leading in and out of them start sporting IEDs (Which may have already begun BTW).

Prepared maps? What do you want to bet Karl Rove had something to do with that? Apparently Rove wanted to make Bush appear he had a handle on things militarily -- you know, to make up for the embarrassing fact that Bush deserted his post during the Vietnam War. Ironically, all Rove did was help Bush commit an act of treason.

The next time Cheney or one of the other neo-fascists accuse a war opponent of aiding the enemy, that war opponent should simply respond: "Well, at least I don't give Al Qaeda our troop positions like President Bush does."

I Want Gore To Run, But . . .

From the Sunday Telegraph:

Friends of Al Gore have secretly started assembling a campaign team in preparation for the former American vice-president to make a fresh bid for the White House.

Two members of Mr Gore's staff from his unsuccessful attempt in 2000 say they have been approached to see if they would be available to work with him again. * * *

If he runs, I hope Gore assembles a different team this time. I don't think his year 2000 team served him very well.

The Telegraph article contained some other interesting tidbits, including this comment from an unnamed Republican strategist: "Gore could be the toughest Democrat to beat."

I think a lot of Republicans probably feel that way. I spoke with a couple of my conservative friends recently about the 2008 election. Both of them want Hillary to get the Democratic nomination because they feel she can easily be beaten. Much to their chagrin, I agreed with them, and said other things that expressed my extreme dislike for Candidate Hillary.

Perplexed, my conservative friends then asked me who I wanted on the Democratic side, and I said I wanted Gore to run. They reacted as if I had just endorsed Satan for president, and went on and on about how much they hated Gore. They were clearly scared shitless that Gore might indeed run, because I think they know in their hearts that Gore will crush anyone the GOP nominates in 2008. He is untouchable on Iraq and global warming, which will both be huge issues in the next election.

Gore/Obama 2008.

Mike Luckovich

The Cho Controversy

Here's what Atrios has to say:

I'm a bit puzzled by all the conversation about whether NBC and other news outlets should've broadcast Cho's videos. While there can always be debates about what should be front and center, the idea that this kind of thing should be withheld by a Media That Knows Best is rather disturbing. Emphasis and placement is always an issue, which is why if nothing else this stuff can be put on the internets where people can make the effort to take a peek if they wish.

And, no, I didn't have much desire to see any of it, I just reject the idea that our Elite Filters really know what's best for us.

Kevin Drum agrees with Atrios, and I find myself in that camp as well -- but I still think NBC and the rest of them handled it wrong. Cho had two clear goals: (1) kill a lot of people, and (2) get his f**ked-up message out. He accomplished the first goal on his own, but he needed help to accomplish the second one, and NBC and the rest of them were more than happy to provide the assist.

That's the problem I have with all this. Although I appreciate Drum's point that Cho's images and video are "a key part of helping us understand one of the biggest news stories of the year," I just think it could have been handled a little better. NBC could have instead simply shown a couple still shots from Cho's videos, and then said something like:

"Due to respect for the victims and their families, we have decided not to display these videos on air. We do, however, appreciate that these images and videos are an important part of a major story, so we have made them available on our website."

Sure, I'm probably splitting hairs on this one, but that's how I feel about it. What I really hated about the coverage was when folks like Blitzer and Zahn would have some "expert" on their programs and then say: "Mr. Expert, watch this video." The video of Cho doing and saying his thing was then played at length, and then Blitzer or Zahn would ask, "So, what does that video tell you about Cho, Mr. Expert?" The expert would, of course, reply with something like: "Well, it shows that Cho was one screwed-up dude."

Really? That was the exact conclusion I reached after I heard that Cho shot over 30 people to death, but of course, I'm no expert.

Rove's "Let's Sacrifice Gonzales" Plan Remains On Track (With Updates)

I've listened to bits and pieces of the Gonzales testimony today, and things are not going well. Indeed, I heard on CNN over the lunch hour that White House insiders are very unhappy with how the Attorney General is handling himself. One White House insider even told a CNN reporter that watching the testimony is like watching a baby seal getting clubbed.

Of course, this is all going according to BushCo's plan. The White House is hoping that they can put Gonzales out there as a punching bag for Congress; and that once the crap is totally beaten out of him and he resigns, then Congress will give up on this particular scandal and will not have the energy to go after Karl Rove, the real mover and shaker behind PurgeGate.

Gonzales was just a bit player in all this. That's why he's doing so badly today, despite the fact that he has had weeks to prepare for today's testimony.

UPDATE: What Josh says:

From the buzz I'm hearing today, if Alberto Gonzales were a stock, we'd be at that point when those automatic trading halts kicked in because so many people are trying to sell. But let's not get distracted by Alberto Gonzales. He's just a cog. In almost every case, what we're talking about here is Gonzales's willingness to take orders from the White House -- most importantly from Karl Rove and President Bush -- on firing US Attorneys for corrupt purposes and using the Justice Department to suppress Democratic turnout in swing states. Mr. Gonzales is a secondary issue. The real players are in the White House.

UPDATE II: Here's what Senator Schumer said to a reporter moments after Gonzales' testimony ended:

"[I]t may have not been a knock-out punch, but he took twenty steps backwards. It's hard to believe that after today's performance the White House would want him to stay in office -- it would show a stubborness and an intransigence and most of all a lack of regard for the people who work in the Justice Department and the American people in terms of the faith in the criminal justice system. * * *"

Schumer also stated that the "arrow points more and more to the White House," and that he thinks it is going to be important to hear from Karl Rove and Harriet Miers.

They're Expecting Only 3000 Arrests?

From the Star-Tribune (via Hoffmania):

About $550,000 for a possible open-air, fenced detention facility to hold protesters next to the Ramsey County Workhouse; $1.7 million for overtime, and $62,000 for biohazard decontamination equipment.

These are among the items included in a $4.4 million budget proposal by Ramsey County Sheriff Bob Fletcher, who was told by St. Paul police to plan for 3,000 arrests during the 2008 Republican National Convention in St. Paul.

The ACLU has criticized this budget proposal, saying that the projection of 3000 arrests is "far too high and represented an overreaction by authorities."


I guess we'll find out in 2008 whether the projection is too high -- I have a feeling it won't be.

But just to be on the safe side, maybe Sheriff Fletcher should also acquire a few of those people-scooping trucks from Soylent Green.

CD Review: Live At Massey Hall

I rarely post music reviews here, but Neil Young's "new" CD release, Live At Massey Hall, is worth a mention. Actually, it is old in that it is a previously-unreleased recording of a 1971 concert consisting of just Neil and his guitar and piano.

What I really like about the CD is that a lot of the songs he performs -- e.g., Old Man, Heart of Gold, A Man Needs A Maid -- were being played to an audience which had never heard them before because they were brand new songs that had not yet been released on any album. [Before he gets into the new stuff, Neil tells the audience: "I've written so many new ones that I can't think of anything else to do with them other than sing 'em."]

So on my first listen-through, I tried to put myself in the audience's place and imagine how I would feel about the songs had it been the first time I heard them. Sometimes I go to a show where the artist is testing out new material, and I'm usually fine with that, but the new stuff is rarely received with the same enthusiasm as the artist's more-famous material. But I'm pretty sure I would have loved these "new" Neil tunes from the git-go, especially "Old Man." It was great to hear these classic tunes for the first time, if you know what I mean.

But he did play some of his "older" material. Neil's acoustic versions of "Ohio," "Don't Let It Bring You Down," "Cowgirl in the Sand," and "Down By The River" are particularly good.

Your Tax Dollars At Work Yet Again

This is both hysterical and pathetic (thanks for the link, JB):

Federal prosecutors said Friday they would retry a marijuana grower known as the "guru of ganja," even after a judge urged them to drop the case.

U.S. District Judge Charles Breyer demanded to know who in the Justice Department made the decision to continue pursuing Ed Rosenthal, whose conviction was overturned last year.

Newly appointed U.S. Attorney Scott Schools made the decision, according to Assistant U.S. Attorney George Bevan. Bevan said he was unsure whether Justice Department officials in Washington were involved.

Here's my favorite part: "Rosenthal, 62, cannot be sentenced to prison even if he is convicted again because an appeals court upheld the one-day prison sentence imposed by Breyer in 2003." Well, it's my second favorite part of this story -- my favorite part (obviously) is the Guru of Ganja's court attire (pictured below -- the Guru is the second one from the right).

Remember -- your tax dollars are paying for this one. Don't our government employees have better things to do with their time and our money?

This Is Interesting (And Somewhat Troubling)

Wonderful:

The world's bee colonies are dying mysteriously, and a study from Landau University suggests that mobile phones may be to blame. The colonies are subject to "Colony Collapse Disorder," (science-ese for "we don't know where all these bees have gone") and the disorder accounts for the death of anywhere from 50-70 percent of bee colonies. Since bees pollinate most crops, flowers and fruiting trees, the end of bees is seriously bad news for the world's food supply.

It's been long understood that bees respond to electromagnetic radiation. Dr Jochen Kuhn at Germany's Landau University has shown that bees don't return to their hives when cellphones are present. The study doesn't prove that cellphones are responsible for CCD, but it does provide evidence that mobile phones are implicated in the death of hives. * * *

Enough Already

OK, I'm not surprised by this -- after all, the Bush Regime is all politics and no substance -- but I am certainly getting tired of the bullshit:

Last week, Bush administration officials invited senior congressional reporters to the White House and pressured them to increase their coverage of how Iraq war critics are "divided" over legislative strategy, multiple sources have confirmed with ThinkProgress.

The sources say White House officials pointed to examples of national political reporters who have highlighted such "division" and pressed the congressional reporters to follow suit. Specifically, the White House pointed to a recent AP piece on Sen. Barack Obama (D-IL), which reported that Obama believes that "[i]f President Bush vetoes an Iraq war spending bill as promised, Congress quickly will provide the money without the withdrawal timeline the White House objects to." * * *

Forget the fact that "[t]he AP report never directly quoted Obama saying that Congress would give up its fight for a withdrawal timeline, and Obama has said the AP’s characterization is false." We wouldn't want facts like that to get in the way of a good GOP talking point.

Bush and his apologists have a problem, namely, the majority of the country wants out of Iraq. I guess they figure that the only way to change peoples' minds with regard to the Iraq Catastrophe is to demonstrate that there is disagreement amongst war critics on what to do about it. It's pretty much all they have left, given how badly John McCain's recent trip to Baghdad backfired.

PurgeGate Update (with -- uh . . . An Update)

Fun times ahead:

Attorney General Alberto Gonzales has virtually wiped his public schedule clean to bone up for his long-awaited April 17 testimony before the Senate Judiciary Committee—a session widely seen as a crucial test as to whether he will survive the U.S. attorney mess. But even his own closest advisers are nervous about whether he is up to the task. At a recent "prep" for a prospective Sunday talk-show interview, Gonzales's performance was so poor that top aides scrapped any live appearances. During the March 23 session in the A.G.'s conference room, Gonzales was grilled by a team of top aides and advisers—including former Republican National Committee chair Ed Gillespie and former White House lawyer Tim Flanigan—about what he knew about the plan to fire seven U.S. attorneys last fall. But Gonzales kept contradicting himself and "getting his timeline confused," said one participant who asked not to be identified talking about a private meeting. His advisers finally got "exasperated" with him, the source added. "He's not ready," Tasia Scolinos, Gonzales's public-affairs chief, told the A.G.'s top aides after the session was over, said the source. * * *

At first I thought it was odd that Gonzo's difficulties in preparing himself were being leaked to the press, but then I remembered that there is always a reason behind BushCo leaks, and the reason this leak occurred is because Rove wants Gonzales to be the center of this particular scandal. Rove is clearly preparing to throw Gonzales to the wolves.

I find this extremely hilarious because I truly believe that Gonzales had very little to do with the firing of the prosecutors, and that's why he is having such a difficult time getting his testimony straight. This whole PurgeGate Scandal has Rove's fingerprints all over it, and Bush Regime officials are clearly hoping that the scandal will be over once Gonzales takes the fall for this. And I have no doubt that a Medal of Freedom will be involved.

UPDATE: Read this (hat tip to JB).

When Bad Republicans Act Idiotically

The Extreme Right hates CNN's Michael Ware, and for good reason. The week before last, Ware had this to say about Senator John McCain's claim that Americans could walk safely in some parts of Baghdad:

"I don't know what part of Neverland Senator McCain is talking about when he says we can go strolling in Baghdad. The fact that Senator McCain and a delegation can drive from the airport and walk around parts of Baghdad wrapped in a heavy security envelope is not new. Generals and American representatives have been doing such things throughout the war."

Well, last week, McCain traveled to Baghdad to prove Ware wrong, and he did indeed walk through a market in Baghdad. But during his stroll, McCain was accompanied by "100 American soldiers, with three Blackhawk helicopters, and two Apache gunships overhead."

Obviously, McCain's trip to Baghdad was a political catastrophe not only for McCain but for all the other Bush Apologists who have refused to accept that the Iraq situation cannot be resolved militarily. The radical right apparently knows that McCain really screwed the pooch on this Iraq trip, so it is doing its best to move attention away from McCain's colossal frack-up by claiming . . . [brace yourselves] . . . that Ware heckled McCain at a press conference:

A group of conservative political weblogs offered new evidence in continuation of their allegation that CNN reporter Michael Ware disrupted a Sunday press conference in Baghdad with Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) and other Congress members. However, RAW STORY learned from the writer who reported the article that was the basis for their claims that she observed "no disruption of the press conference."

On Tuesday, a group of blogs pointed to a Sunday, April 1 story from Agence France-Presse reporter Jennie Matthew as evidence that a reporter in the back of the press conference had "giggled" while the Arizona Republican spoke.

She told RAW STORY in an e-mail that Michael Ware was not the culprit.

"As far as I'm aware there was no disruption of the press conference at all," wrote Matthew from Baghdad. "The reporter who giggled at the back was not Michael Ware, whom I don't remember giggling or making any kind of disturbance. I think I remember him wanting to ask a question, but the congressmen ended the news conference."

On Monday, RAW STORY posted unedited videos from CNN of the Sunday press conference. News aggregator Matt Drudge had alleged that Ware, the Baghdad correspondent who has criticized Sen. McCain for exaggerating the Iraqi capital's safety, had "heckled" the senator. The videos appeared to confirm Ware's assertion that the press conference had ended without incident and before he could ask a question. * * *

Is this the best the wingnuts can do? You know, if there is a scandal here, it is that Michael Ware and the other reporters did not heckle McCain at that ridiculous press conference.

Maybe there was no heckling because the folks in the audience sensed that McCain's political stunt effectively ended his candidacy for president and they felt sorry for him. I think Josh Marshall has referred to this as McCain's "Dukakis in a Tank" moment, but I think it more resembles a Kaloogian. The word "idiocy" also applies.

And speaking of idiots, this is very funny:

When Justice Department official William Moschella was asked why the Department had fired U.S. Attorney David Iglesias, he told Congress that “Iglesias had delegated to his first assistant the overall running of the office. And, quite frankly, U.S. attorneys are hired to run the office.” Internal documents from the time show officials planning to accuse Iglesias of being an "absentee landlord" to justify his firing.

Iglesias did, in fact, leave the office for 45 days each year. But that's because he's a a captain in the Navy Reserve -- something that was no secret to his superiors.

So now the Office of Special Counsel is investigating whether Iglesias was wrongfully terminated due to his reserve duty, Newsweek reports. It is against the law for employers to discriminate against members of the U.S. military. * * *

This just keeps getting better and better.

Democrats Not Taking Any Shit From Bush

At least not yet:

U.S. Senator Russ Feingold (D-WI) and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) announced today that they are introducing legislation that will effectively end the current military mission in Iraq and begin the redeployment of U.S. forces. The bill requires the President to begin safely redeploying U.S. troops from Iraq 120 days from enactment, as required by the emergency supplemental spending bill the Senate passed last week. The bill ends funding for the war, with three narrow exceptions, effective March 31, 2008.

“I am pleased to cosponsor Senator Feingold’s important legislation,” Reid said. “I believe it is consistent with the language included in the supplemental appropriations bill passed by a bipartisan majority of the Senate. If the President vetoes the supplemental appropriations bill and continues to resist changing course in Iraq, I will work to ensure this legislation receives a vote in the Senate in the next work period.”

“I am delighted to be working with the Majority Leader to bring our involvement in the Iraq war to an end,” Feingold said. “Congress has a responsibility to end a war that is opposed by the American people and is undermining our national security. By ending funding for the President’s failed Iraq policy, our bill requires the President to safely redeploy our troops from Iraq.”

I was certain that the Democrats would simply back down once Bush vetoes the recent funding bill -- and they still may yet back down -- but this recent move certainly sends a signal to Bush that there is indeed a new Congress in town.

Bad Timing

Oops -- it looks like John McCain picked the wrong time to go to Baghdad (but is there ever really a good time to go?):

After a heavily guarded trip to a Baghdad market, Sen. John McCain insisted Sunday that a U.S.-Iraqi security crackdown in the capital was working and said Americans lacked a “full picture” of the progress. The U.S. military later reported six soldiers were killed in roadside bombings southwest of Baghdad.

And John -- while you are working on your whole timing deal, you might want to get rid of the "Americans aren't getting the full picture" talking point. It's soooo 2005.

Here's more on McCain's excellent adventure (from Think Progress, which also has the video of the NBC report on this):

Sen. John McCain strolled briefly through an open-air market in Baghdad today in an effort to prove that Americans are “not getting the full picture” of what’s going on in Iraq.

NBC’s Nightly News provided further details about McCain’s one-hour guided tour. He was accompanied by “100 American soldiers, with three Blackhawk helicopters, and two Apache gunships overhead.” Still photographs provided by the military to NBC News seemed to show McCain wearing a bulletproof vest during his visit.

The trip wasn't a complete political catastrophe, though. McCain did get to show off his great sense of humor. He had a press conference after he and all those heavily armed soldiers toured the market. When he was asked about a statement he made last week when he said there are areas in Baghdad where you could walk around freely, McCain responded, "Yeah, I just came from one."

Hilarious.