First the Walter Reed Middle School, now the attack of the green screen

Thanks Wesleying. Ghastley Astley, but a great video nonetheless.

At least she didn't identify Freddie Mac as the clown in the McDonald's commercials

Oops. It's becoming clear that she doesn't know her fanny from her Fannie Mae.

Still, that doesn't prevent thousands of gullible Americans from embracing her as the conservative crutch John McCain will need to lean on to become president.

Andrew Berends detained in Nigeria

Andrew Berends (Wesleyan, 1994) an award-winning documentary filmmaker has been detained in Nigeria for filming a Nigerian army deployment in the oil-producing Niger Delta.

Detained for a week, Berends was released briefly, and re-detained today along with his local translator Samuel George.

A website has been created to help those who are concerned keep up-to-date on Berends' fate, and to direct those willing to take action to the appropriate US officials.

Berends is best-known for his documentary about the war in Iraq, The Blood of My Brother.

Jesus is coming, look busy

There is little more frightening to me than a powerful public official who is ruled by his/her communication with god first, and who uses reason and common sense as a secondary resource.

It's one of the reasons George Bush has been such a terror. After all, wasn't it Jesus who told him to invade Iraq?

And it seems as if Sarah Palin feels that the war in Iraq is a "task from God," as she proclaimed from the pulpit of her former church in Wasilla.



Wasn't our entire American revolution about throwing off the yoke of tyranny imposed by a king who claimed a divine right as monarch?

Where exactly is the outrage that was leveled at Barack Obama, and his pastor, the Reverend Jeremiah Wright? Sarah Palin not only attended a church with outrageous beliefs about witchcraft, the coming of the final days, creationism, and the invocation of the "holy spirit," but she has proclaimed that her mission has been shaped by her church experience. And her pastor is (and my apologies to anyone with actual mental health issues) a certified nutcase.

Sample any portion of this video and see if you don't agree:




Some early alternative journalism work is linking Palin, and her church with the Third Wave movement, which promotes domination of the world by an army of Christian apostles (Bruce Wilson's alleged "documentary" is a messy pastiche of horrifying christian rituals, which doesn't prove a damned thing other than some Christian sects are so demented as to pass the holy ghost via cellphone - "Can you hear me now?"). And while the evidence that Palin herself is a Dominionist, isn't exactly clear, what is clear is that she's been close to the center of a movement, that given Homeland Security definitions, might be considered a terrorist organization.

I think anyone has the right to believe whatever fairytale they want to believe, without interference from the government, as long as they aren't hurting anyone else.

But I don't want someone making decision about me, my family, my community, my government and my country, who doesn't have the good sense to tell their Jesus to mind his own business when it comes to making policy.

Apparently not ready for prime time

When the press will kiss her ass the way they've kissed George Bush's ass, maybe, just maybe the Republican party will let her speak.



(UPDATE) Of course you've heard that the McCain campaign have agreed to allow Sarah Palin to be interviewed by ABC's Charlie Gibson. Here's what TPM has to say about the terms of the interview.

And affable, soft pitching Charlie Gibson? You remember him as the debate host whom the audience booed after the Pennsylvania Democratic Debate between Clinton and Obama for doing such a lame job.

What do you do when you have nothing to say?

Not visit the Sunday morning talk shows for free campaign publicity.

I think Jesus said not to hide your divisiveness beneath a basket.

What do you talk about when you have nothing to say?

Joe Biden nails the lack of content at the RNC.

Walter Reed, Donna Reed, read all about it

Someone running the RNC slide show apparently goofed, as TPM has pointed out today, mistakenly showing Walter Reed Junior High in Los Angeles, when they meant to show Walter Reed Hospital.

This is what they showed.














This is what they meant.






This is Donna Reed.








This too is Walter Reed.

Is it Jesus, or is it Joe?

Sarah Palin's foreign policy, so far, has been formed by her communications with her savior (and we don't mean Karl Rove). She has stated that the war in Iraq is a mission from God, and maybe that's why she's so proud to send her son into combat in a hopeless, endless and meaningless struggle.

Now there's word that Creepy Joe™ Lieberman is giving her foreign policy advice ("The Sunnis are the ones with the beards.")

As one of my favorite prayers goes: "Lord save me from those who believe in you."

Some of those community organizers Republicans think are so funny

Republicans at their National Convention, led on by cheerleading Vice Presidential candidate Sarah Palin, have held community organizers up for ridicule.

With that in mind, it's important to consider some community organizers who have experienced derision from the establishment in the past, but who went on to make changes in the world.

A man named Martin Luther King, organized the black community to demand equal rights.

A woman named Susan B. Anthony organized women to demand women's suffrage.

A man named Mohandas Gandhi organized the men and women in his country to stand against the injustices of British imperialistic occupation.

A woman named Prudence Crandall organized a school, and created the first integrated classroom in the United States.

A man named Thomas Paine inspired colonists to rebel against Britain, and named this country the United States of America. (Yeah, all he did was write a couple of books - one, Common Sense, was a bestseller).

And of course, thousands of nameless, and unthanked community organizers have helped the underserved, and overlooked to achieve justice, healthcare, nutrition, education and social status. These organizers don't often achieve the notoriety, or huge monetary rewards of political or corporate leaders, but their contributions are not something to be laughed at.