Newt Gingrich such a movie star, appearing in and narrating movies made by Citizens United Productions. His wife Callista co-stars. Think of these cinematic adventures as the conservative version of "amateur" home movies. Rediscovering God in America was such a hit they’re making a sequel. Newt twittered his glee:

Movie news callista and I are filming next monday gettysburg wednesday jamestown friday mount vernon for new rediscovering God 2 documentary

Meanwhile, Oscar winning actor Kevin Spacey and director George Hickenlooper took a trip to Cumberland Federal Prison and met Jack Abramoff, who he’ll be portraying in Casino Jack, a political thriller-biopic. Tea Leoni is rumored to be cast as his movie-wife. According to Nikki Finke, things went well:

At one point during the meeting, Spacey was sharing his impersonation of Bill Clinton with Abramoff, while Abramoff shared a pretty good impersonation of Ronald Reagan with Spacey.

Finke’s source tells the columnist that Abramoff wants to tell his side of the story for Casino Jack:

Frankly, he feels like he was thrown under the bus by his fellow Republicans, especially John McCain who wanted to use Jack to help sell himself to the American people as the great reformer.

The Madoff biopic, Madoff: Made Off with America (yes, they went there) won’t be quite as fancy. No one has ever heard of the actors whose auditions are posted online so fans can vote for who they think will be the best Bernie. The populist excitement is such that, says producer Edmund Druilhet:

We are getting such tremendous response to our current BioPic film project, we are expanding into a secondary documentary project called "Satan of Wallstreet".  We are soliciting victims to video tape their stories and send us tapes/dvd…

Druilhet just released the super schlocky Polanski Unauthorized

causing Hollywood to lose sleep

probably because filmmakers wondered how this piece of crud could get financing their oeuvres couldn’t–and perpetuating the lie that Anton LaVey, who founded the Church of Satan, was involved in the making of Rosemary’s Baby. Don’t expect much more from Madoff with America. His story while deeply evil needs much better treatment.

The newest swine flu, the Global Trotter, appears to be a combo of swine flu and avian flu with some human influenza thrown in for better replication, and of course the wingnuts are freaking out over this, especially because Mexico has instituted emergency measures. Yup, conspiracy theories, fears of forced quarantines, FEMA camps, enforced flu shots, Illuminati overtaking us all…Oh and fears of immigrants.

Wingers are especially frothing over an article from a Texas newspaper which lays out a dry run for a massive immunization point of delivery (POD). Officials in Guadalupe County, TX are

preparing for a May 2 dress rehearsal of a pandemic disaster at the Navarro ISD. Volunteers will set up and operate a “drive through” POD in which they will take a practice run at registering, screening and pretending to inoculate 100 volunteers so they can identify whatever problems might come up and prepare to meet them.

The same procedures with minor changes would apply to any similar emergency, such as an outbreak of smallpox or an anthrax or ricin attack

Oh and in some countries, stockpiles of Tamiflu are due to expire at the end of the year,Coincidence? Conspiracy buffs think not! Because you see, everything is a giant PLOT!

On Twitter @SuperGodiva says:

Swine Flu reported as unusual as it affects the most healthy (20-45) vs weak kids/elderly. Perfect pathogen to quell dissent.

There are also several herds of swine flu watchers Twitter including #swineflu and CDC so you can get good and worked up.

From comments on PrisonPlanet:

The false flag for Fema to declare martial law, do the massive gun confiscation and push you into a Fema Camp, for your own safety has began, a little ahead of schedule.. most of the info I had said somewhere in June or July, perhaps the people coming out to the Tea Parties was enough to excellerate the time line, and let the culling begin sooner, as opposed to later.

 But there seems to be some grave misconceptions. Like this from AboveTopSecret which seems to be a little confused about Agent Orange:

P.S. Remember Agent Orange and all the other Experimental drugs the government tested on soldiers during the gulf war and even the world wars? They are not trust able.

"Torture Memos: The Waterboarding Song" by Jonathan Mann. The shoe gazing ditty takes its lyrics directly from the torture memos:

the detainee is lying on a gurney
that’s inclined at an angle: 10 to 15 degrees
a cloth is placed over the detainee’s face
cold water is poured on the cloth

the wet cloth creates
a barrier through which
it is difficult or in some cases not possible
for the detainee to breathe

if the detainee
makes an effort to defeat the technique
by twisting his head to the side and breathing
out the corner of his mouth
the interrogator may cup his hands around
the detainees nose and mouth
in which case it would not be posible for him to breathe!

As we explained
in the Section 2340A Memorandum,
"pain and suffering"
(as used in Section 2340)
is best understood as a single concept,
not distinct concepts
of "pain" as distinguished from "suffering"…

The waterboard,
which inflicts no pain or actual harm whatsoever,
does not, in our view inflict "severe pain or suffering".
Even if one were to parse the statute more finely
to treat "suffering" as a distinct concept,
the waterboard could not be said to inflict severe suffering.

The waterboard is simply a controlled acute episode, lacking the connotation of a protracted period of time generally given to suffering. 

[h/t  Twolf]

 (video NSFW/Kids)

Comedienne Bea Arthur died today.  As Maude in her eponymous sitcom, she became a fierce and different face of feminism at a time when when Charlie’s Angels and Policewoman made gams and jiggle  pre-requisites for doing a man’s job on television. Tall, deep-voiced and over 50, Bea Arthur’s Maude slung one-liners as her character dealt with conservative cousin Archie Bunker, her husband’s alcoholism and a peri-menopausal abortion, the latter of which drew quite a bit of conservative ire.

Less than a decade after Maude left the airwaves, having won Arthur an Emmy, the actress broke new ground on Golden Girls, a sitcom about four senior citizens in a retirement community. The series which ran for seven seasons, gave  faces and voices to the growing ranks of seniors, showing them as feisty, lively and, yes, even sexually active. The show won 10 Emmys, including two for best comedy series as well as individual awards for each of the stars.

Arthur’s career began on the New York stage where she appeared in Threepenny Opera and Fiddler on the Roof, and 1966 as Vera Charles in Mame, for which she won a Tony for best supporting actress.

Last night I watched a DVD of the Pamela Anderson Comedy Central Roast. Bea Arthur was one of the roasters, and she held up admirably as others tossed off really blue, off-color jokes about her, each other, and Anderson. Then in her grande dame of comedy glory she rose to the occasion, and did the most brilliant bit of the evening, a deadpan reading from Anderson’s roman a clef, Star Struck, as seen in the above video. She killed.

Thank you, Bea.

Uber-hatering Westboro Baptist Church said they were sending  eight protesters from their Topeka headquarters to  Newport Beach, CA to froth and scream over  local Corona del Mar High School’s production of "Rent."

Times must be tough; only three, including Fred Phelps, the leader of the church–which counts only members of Phelps’ extended family as congregants–showed up in front of the school at 2pm Friday. They were met by 300 counter-protesters, including local clergy, parents, students and neighbors, according to the Orange County Register.

The counter-protesters waved rainbow flags and held signs that included messages like "Hate is not a family value," and "Love is Not a Sin." WBC’s signs were full of fail, especially the one with a fetus between two hamburger buns. After after an hour of having their chants downed out by the pro-gay crowd, including 30 who stood next to them, the WBC spiritual troglodytes asked the Newport Beach Police to escort them to their cars. According to the Orange County Register, they told an officer, who asked to remain unidentified,  that they feared for their lives and were heading to the airport, abandoning plans to protest Friday night at the play itself.

About 20 police were on hand along with private security from the school. Located in very conservative Orange County, Newport Beach is one of the wealthiest communities in the United States.

Theatre teacher Ron Martin told the Los Angeles Times that he was so proud of the students for speaking out. He had chosen Rent as the school’s drama production, hoping it would create a more tolerant attitude at the school after a video appeared on Facebook showing Corona del Mar students using anti-gay slurs and threatening a female student.Homosexual insults are also common on the campus.

The school is currently embroiled in an ACLU lawsuit alleging that school officials have foster a homophobic and sexist environment.

The production of "Rent" performed at Coronas de Mar High is the "school-safe" version. High senior James Ramsey told the OC Register:

I think the school version does a very good job of bringing the material down and making it appropriate at a high school level. I feel like (homophobia) is just a common thing in high schools in general as well as in Orange County, being one of the most conservative counties in California.

But yesterday students and residents from this conservative community showed Fred Phelps and his crazed followers (all two of them) that hate is not acceptable in Newport Beach. And hopefully that  concept will stick at the school.

Corona del Mar High School in upscale Newport Beach, CA is readying for the sold out  student production of the musical Rent. And tomorrow the Newport Beach Police Department will be also ready, anticipating the arrival of the Westboro Baptist Church as classes at let out in the afternoon and again in the evening as audiences arrives for the play.

WBC, a hate-filled, allegedly Christian church–which believes President Obama is the anti-Christ and targets high profile funerals including those of murdered children and fallen troops– posted this repellent message that targets Jews, gays and those who love them:

Corona del Mar High School – Jews Killed Jesus, love fags! 2101 Eastbluff Drive WBC to picket this High School, and the goofy Jewish bastards who pretend they have a cause against the Lord and against His anointed. Check out this good verse: Romans 11:11…Is this what you blind Christ-rejecting Jews are protesting on behalf of?.. "Rent" is but the catalyst for this epic event. AMEN!

WBC’s press release release reads:

WBC to picket the fag play Rent, a lying, maudlin piece of propaganda about the alleged struggles of AIDS- infected fags in DOOMED aMERICA!   Those who enable fag filth by such projects as Rent are also  worthy of death (hell).  (Ro. 1:32.) God Hates Fags and Fag-Enablers; Ergo, God Hates Corona del Mar High School!

 The public high school, located in one of nation’s wealthiest communities–according to the 2008 US Census estimate, the median income for a household in the city was $110,511, and the median income for a family was $162,976–has already faced heaps of controversy earlier this year because of the musical and an ACLU law suit alleging the school and the district have permitted a “sexist and homophobic environment” on campus.

In February, drama teacher Ron Martin accused Principal Fal Asrani of canceling the production of "Rent" because of objections to gay characters in the musical. School officials confiscated rainbow buttons worn by students in support of the play. Asrani disputed Martin’s version and allowed the show to proceed after reviewing the script. But that, coupled with the actions of several football players in January prompted a lawsuit by ACLU alleging school officials  foster a "sexist" and "homophobic" atmosphere. According to the Los Angeles Times, the suit references

a Facebook video posted in January in which three Corona del Mar football players threatened to rape and kill a female classmate and used slurs to describe homosexuals. The video was posted on the online profile of a fourth student, who reportedly threatened the young woman at school.

In their press release the ACLU said with regards to the football players:

The school’s inadequate and inappropriate response included assigning an assistant football coach at the school to investigate the harassment, an obvious conflict of interest because three of the four accused students are members of the football team. The female student has been forced to change her schedule, classes and routines in order to avoid the harassing students.” 

The ACLU suit has not yet resolved. And if that wasn’t enough for the high school–which last year was ranked one of the best high schools in America, according to U.S. News & World Report– last week a former Corona de Mar teacher was charged with charged with molesting two girls, both under 12 years old at the time, and for possession of child pornography. The molestations occured in 2001 and 1998; the teacher, Mathew Macul Fahey, was employed at Corona del Mar High School in 2003 and 2004. He is being held without bail. WBC brings up the molestations and child pornography charges  in their picket announcement.

Meanwhile anti-Westboro counter-protestors are showing support for the school and students, and their antipathy for Westboro Bapstist Church. Said one:

I tried to get tickets for "Rent," but they were sold out for opening night and all the way through to next week.  So instead I’m making signs for tomorrow’s opening.

The signs read: 

Spiritual Troglodytes, Go Home!

and

You’re Not in Kansas Anymore, W’boro

Levi Johnston may just have new career: modeling. Last night on Larry King, the father of Sarah Palin’s grandson Tripp that he would not be opposed to modeling. Levi says he can fall back on being an electrician but:

But right now, I’m just more interested in taking care of my kid…You know, Larry, there’s been a lot of people coming and calling, a lot of offers out there for me to do a lot of things. Nothing is set in stone. I haven’t signed or done anything. I haven’t made a dime off anything I’ve done yet. So for them [the Plain camp] to say I’m out for fame and fortune, that’s ridiculous.

When King asked Levi:

If someone came to you, with an offer to, let’s say, model – 

the hunky high school drop-out responded:

My guy, Tank Jones, they can talk to him about it. 

So Levi has a PR guy, a plan and an attorney, and while he’s not looking to make trouble, he knows his rights–how to play the game:

I don’t want to stir anything up, but, you know…We — I’m not doing any child support right now until we go to court. I have everything my boy needs back home, diapers, toys, everything. Once we go to court and deal with that —

Last week, Chuck Heath Sarah Palin’s father and baby Tripp’s great grandpappy had some words about Levi, telling Us magazine:

 I don’t agree with what he’s doing right now. It’s not right. He’s broke, so he’s trying to capitalize on this. I wish he’d take some of this money he’s making and buy some diapers with it.

Uh, Levi’s not getting paid, he has diapers and he’s being denied his rights as a parent.

Levi also discussed how his sister and Bristol don’t get along and how his life changed once Gov GILF got the VP nom, plus his mother Gram Sherry and sis  Mercede ( Mer-sade, "Sadie" for short) talked about Gram Sherry’s drug charges ("talk to my lawyer") and who Bristol is like all jealous and stuff because her friends used to date Levi before Bristol. 

Oh and Levi doesn’t think abstinence is realistic. Duh.

Meanwhile Sarah Palin’s got PAC problems: Another Alaska resident, an advocate for children with disabilities and mother of an autistic child filed a new ethics complaint against Gov Palin:

The complaint says the governor abdicated her governor duties at a critical time — the end of the legislative session, when she went to Indiana for two events, a Right to Life banquet and a breakfast for families with Down syndrome children.

"The recent partisan trip to Indiana by the Governor was purely to benefit personal interests, had no benefit for the State of Alaska and was in direct conflict with her official duties," the complaint said….

The complaint noted that during Palin’s trip to Indiana, the Legislature voted down her nomination for attorney general, Wayne Anthony Ross, and other critical business was left unfinished, including whether Alaska will accept all the federal stimulus money.

Wayne Anthony Ross has been a staunch advocate of fathers’ rights, and that’s about the nicest thing I can say baout him. Maybe WAR and Levi can sit down for a little palaver about his rights as a dad and his not-ever-gonna-be-mother-in-law, especially since Sarah Palin has been known to be a bit forceful with those who cross her–Troopergate, anyone? Gram Sherry and Larry King had this exchange:

KING: So are — and you’re not — are you hesitant to force action?

Do you feel that you’ll get the wrath…

S. JOHNSTON: Well, I guess we’re going to…

KING: …of the governor or what?

S. JOHNSTON: Well, yes. I mean we don’t want to — we want to keep this on the lowdown and have, you know, not start trouble. But, obviously, if things don’t change, that’s our next action when we get back is to go forward with that, I guess.

Of course going on Larry King isn’t the best way to keep things on the lowdown, so it looks like a shot has been fired across the bow. Oh and right now, per the Anchorage Daily News, Palin’s legal bills from fighting ethic complaints as well as other matters stand at more $500,000, and the cost of custody battle over Tripp is just gonna add to that.  So maybe she should just follow the letter and spirit of the law and give Levi his legal rights.

 Okay, I live in Los Angeles, and our local newspapers suck. We have one major daily, the Los Angeles Times, owned by the Tribune Company, plus area papers like the Daily News which serves the Valley and the Pasadena Star News, and  the weekly papers like the Weekly and the super tiny Independent chain which weekly publishes a list of crimes culled from the police blotter for each of the five communities it serves with its eight-page rag.

But the once groundbreaking LA Weekly moved west to Culver City, a separate municipality and thus not Los Angeles proper, and along the way lost much of its verve and flavor–and staff. LA City Beat, another weekly has folded.

The once great  LA Times is dying, dying, dying as an actual paper, and it’s so heartbreaking. Its parent company Tribune filed for bankruptcy. The paper has  shrunk, killing the book section and the local news is folded into the main section.  And raised the newsstand price!   Okay, they did win a Pulitzer for the wildfires coverage, and columnist Steve Lopez transformed his essays into a book and an upcoming movie called The Soloist starring Jamie Foxx and Robert Downey, Jr. But the paper still sucks.

Now comes this utterly insane bit of news: Tribune asked U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Delaware to authorize  bonus payments would amount to about $13 million for 693 managers (over $19,000 per person if averaged out). Chief Executive Sam Zell and nine other of Tribune’s top executives would not be eligible for the bonuses.   Tribune’s rationale:

These payments are vitally necessary to reward participants for their extraordinary contributions during an exceptionally difficult year.

Those "contributions" Tribune said could generate about $425 million in annualized cashflow. Um, those contributions include firing 2,400 employees, shrinking news coverage, gutting sections…And "could" is the operative word in the sentence. Maybe defer the bonuses, wait and see if that annualized cash flow becomes a reality and then give  bigger bonuses?

Meanwhile Chicago Tribune, the company’s hometown paper, announced it would fire 53 news staffers–about 11 percent of its newsroom–to save money and refocus its efforts on local news coverage! That’s how those managers are getting their bonuses! 

In all fairness, the Tribune Company also asked the bankruptcy court to release $2.5 million in severance payments to 70 employees fired last year before the bankruptcy firing. 

Conservative talks show host Michael Savage says homosexuals:

have taken over every aspect of the culture, that’s how we have the president we have…diversity is a cover for perversity…gay mafia runs every avenue of this culture…They took over the newspapers…and the newspapers are collapsing

And the names he calls Perez Hilton…

[H/T Media Matters]

Perez Hilton has been making good use of his Twitter feeds, getting messages of support from celebs regarding his gay marriage question during the Miss USA pageant.

Miley Cyrus who is very active in her church Twittered back:

Jesus loves you AND your partner and wants you to know how much he cares! thats like a daddy not loving his lil boy cuz hes gay and that is WRONG and very sad! like i said everyone deserves to be happy.

A little later the teen super star added:

am a christian and i love you [Perez] – gay or not. BECAUSE you are no different that anyone else! we are all gods children! i am not saying this so would be nice on your site (though that would be nice jk;) but because the LORD has spoken ‘love cuz god loves’.

Heidi Montag, one of the stars of The Hills–who is marrying co-star Spenser Prett on Saturday in Pasadena after eloping  to Mexico five months ago–sent Perez this message:

God says in the bible that we should love our neighbor and he created us all as equals. I know in my heart that gays and lesbians should have the same government rights that Spencer and I will when we get married. So, yes, this blonde Christian believes in gay marriage and I hope to one day go to YOUR wedding, Perez!!!

And fellow blonde Brintey Spears, who was raised Christian, Twitted Perez:

Love is love! People should be able to do whatever makes them happy! -Britney