Well, I looked up some of the “Innocence of Muslims” movie — here’s one clip, and you can find many more — just to see if it’s as cartoonishly bad as everyone’s been saying. And you know what? It is. I’ve made movies on pocket-change budgets that looked like “Lawrence of Arabia” in comparison.
Middle-school costumes, fake beards from the pop-up Halloween store, and all those sparkling-white California-actor teeth. But the worst of it? They shot on a green screen. We had a green-screen shot in one of our challenge movies; it took forever to light the goddamn thing. But that’s the great thing about working with people who care; even when the stakes are low and it’s just a silly challenge movie, they honor their work by doing it well. Note, by way of contrast, well, the whole clip. Muhammed looks to his right and the light’s on his face. He gets up, and the light is from the other side. But that’s nothing compared to the way he’s seemingly floating over the desert floor.
The guard is a porn actor. The rest say the Muslim-bashing lines were dubbed in later. The whole story is seemingly made for Gawker, if it weren’t for the dead ambassador and all.
Jesus, why are people so stupid? I ask you.
I’m exhausted; how about you? Some linkage? Sure.
Pretty, pretty Cathy Cambridge.
Duck lips galore. With some horrifying photos.
Can a light-skinned black woman with delicate features play a dark-skinned, heavy-featured African-American icon? Ask the people fretting over whether Zoe Saldana can play Nina Simone.
Zzzzzz.
David C. said on September 14, 2012 at 6:51 am
Good Lordy, Gordy. Is there a cinematic equivalent to that’s not writing, that’s typing? Hal Warren is smiling in the great beyond knowing that “Manos” is no longer the worst movie ever made.
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alex said on September 14, 2012 at 7:00 am
Ms. Weldon is truly one of the most hideous cosmetic surgery victims I’ve ever witnessed. I think the author gets it wrong, though, about Angelina Jolie. When she was married to Billy Bob she was most certainly doing some enhancing. She looks much more natural now.
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coozledad said on September 14, 2012 at 7:10 am
Gawker had some photos of Michael Cimino pre and post surgery. The contrast is stunning.
Looks like Al Pacino walked in to the surgery at the last minute and said “I’m torn between the Diane Keaton and the May Pang. Gimme both.”
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brian stouder said on September 14, 2012 at 7:59 am
Shelby and Grant and I attended the first IPFW Omnibus lecture September 12, which was Mia Farrow speaking about Darfur.
Ms Farrow has genuinely beautiful hair. And she has duck lips.
There was a very large screen above and behind her, which had many heartbreaking images that she brought back from her visits to that place, and she frequently turned her head and looked up – enhancing the effects of her wonderful mane.
But – she has no face. Still, it was an affecting lecture, and the young folks are still talking about it, plus we ran into Grant’s US history teacher as we were leaving – which was a pleasant discussion opportunity/palate cleanser.
There is no real point to this post, other than to say – “duck lips” got me laughing, and also reminded me that you can’t judge a duck by its lips…or something
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Prospero said on September 14, 2012 at 9:49 am
Strangest possible bedfellows.
I’ve always figured Jolie came by her lips honestly. And they don’t look like duck’s lips. They look like Jon Voight, her lunatic reactionary dad.
For some reason, I’ve seen that movie Betty Blue, and it is interminable crap, though semi-cool visually. A strange Netflix choice. The really strang movie I watched recently is a Greek movie called Attenberg. Really odd, but somewhat affecting.
Somehow it came to me in my sleep what Danny meant by all that seemingly inane and superfluous shit Danny was talking about free speech. That’s the American value Mittens was defending. So, when it comes down to choosing between free speech and unadulterated religious bigotry, free speech wins every time for the Windsock. Funny, American courts haven’t seen it that way over the years. It strikes me as passing funny that people that seem to believe free speech is absolute (it’s assuredly not) are the same crowd of Murricans that pushed a flag-burning Amendment for fracking years and years. They also wrote a bigtime war on porn into the GOPer platform in Tampa last month. Foolish hobgoblins lacking consistency. I still don’t understand what part of the Cairo Embassy tweets anyone could have found offensive, and the business about claiming the situation was known to be dire for two days before the attack, that is made up GOPer shit. There is no “lockdown” mode at American embassies, because Congress refuses to fund reasonable protection for diplomats. And if somebody working for the USA had information of imminent danger in Libya, I’d bet she was working in the American embassy in Benghazi.
I remember Mia Farrow as a cultural phenomenon, when Allison McKenzie hit the airwaves on Peyton Place. An ethereally gorgeous young woman. I was in Bloomfield Hills’ own Leigh Taylor Young’s camp. Kinda embarrassing, but during my freshman year in HS, a knowledge of the wars between the Herrington’s and the Cords were required knowledge for talking to girls. Last I saw of her she was on some episodes of died-too-young The Pretender, and she had a recurring role on the great Picket Fences. What a beauty. Brian’s observation about Mia Farrow is very sad. And Woody Allen was only the second biggest asshole she ever was married to.
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brian stouder said on September 14, 2012 at 10:16 am
By the way – a question I forgot to ask is whether Nancy was making a sly non-comment on reports of Cathy Cambridge’s caught-on-camera topless sunbathing, by showing that – fully clothed – she ‘knocks’ it out of the park (as T&L say).
Or, maybe CC just wanted to help dissipate some of the heat from the Vegas photos of the Crown Jewels?
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Deborah said on September 14, 2012 at 10:31 am
I always wished I had plumper lips but lord I’d never get them worked on, especially not at my age. How ridiculous.
Little Bird had unfortunately inherited the same lips as me until she was in 4th or 5th grade and got knocked down on the asphalt playground at school. Her lower lip was busted open and from that day forward she has a really beautiful full lower lip. I joked for years after that I hoped someone would punch me in the mouth and fix mine.
Those women who get their faces done and end up looking like clowns puzzles me, many of them ostensibly have the bucks to hire top notch surgeons, but must have ended up with quacks.
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brian stouder said on September 14, 2012 at 10:43 am
ended up with quacks.
I think Deborah just won the thread walking away – with the single best duck-lip pun possible!
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nancy said on September 14, 2012 at 10:50 am
Brian, I was unaware of Cathy Cambridge’s headlights issue until early this morning. As I understand it, topless sunbathing is pretty common in Europe, and while I certainly get that the Queen would discourage it by her daughter-in-law, I did notice that Bill Cambridge was standing next to her in one of the pix, offering sunscreen, not shaking a finger and telling her to cover up.
Good for Cathy Cambridge in protecting her fair English skin! She’ll pat herself on the back when she’s 50.
Otherwise, I would only say that for such a thin person, she has a perfectly nice pair. And that is all.
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Prospero said on September 14, 2012 at 11:02 am
Mindboggling story about UGA athletic finances. Yeah, $92mill is ridiculous, but everybody that rags on football should consider the fate of Title IX sports without football revenue:
Even for a UGA athletics department that expects to generate $92 million in revenue this fiscal year, the night’s windfall will be significant. It is more than enough, for example, to cover the annual budgets of the soccer ($667,000) and softball ($790,000) programs.
Here’s some background about how that bullshit movie was made and the creeps behind it. And I ddo mean creeps. Guess what. Pamela Geller is connected to it. Quelle surprise.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2012/sep/13/egypt-libya-hollywood-film?commentpage=last#end-of-comments
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Dorothy said on September 14, 2012 at 11:04 am
Brian’s mention of Mia Farrow led me to meandering around the web and I found some sad facts about Soon-Yi, Woody’s wife and Mia’s adopted daughter. She was the daughter of a prostitute, who used to discipline Soon-Yi by repeatedly slamming her head against a wooden door. It’s reported that she has an IQ of about 100, and had a very difficult time in school. Maybe you all knew this already but I had never known this. And before she and Woody fell in love (??) she called him “nasty and ugly.” Amazing that they’ve been together for 20 years now! And Mia and Woody’s biological son is now called Ronan – he went to college at the age of 11. He works for Hillary Clinton these days.
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Danny said on September 14, 2012 at 11:07 am
Prospero, some questions:
1. Did the “film” have anything to do with the attacks on the embassies or was it, as all reports are indicating, only a pretext inserted to cover the attacks that were already planned in advance for the anniversary of 9/11?
2. Had you seen the “film” before you asserted that it constitutes “hate” speech? And if you have now seen it, do you still hold to that?
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Danny said on September 14, 2012 at 11:09 am
Nance/Brian, I do not think Cathy and Bill are very happy about all of this. I feel kinda sorry for them.
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Julie Robinson said on September 14, 2012 at 11:29 am
My theory is she was rebutting the latest baby rumors.
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coozledad said on September 14, 2012 at 11:29 am
Prospero: Spy ran a great Mexican soaps parody with Mia, Sinatra and the adopted kids. The best line is Frank’s, just coming home from work- “Hola, you little tacos. Donde esta the gin?”
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Charlotte said on September 14, 2012 at 11:39 am
Cooz — reminds me of leaving Milwaukee on Monday. The TSA guy was chatting with me in rudimentary Spanish, and eventually said “quanto?” I looked puzzled. “How long have you been speaking Spanish?” he asked, in English. “I don’t,” I said. “But you just were.” “Oh,” I replied. “I used to live in California.” A midwestern moment — I guess I just thought everyone knew some basic Spanish of the “Donde esta the gin?” sort ….
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nancy said on September 14, 2012 at 11:40 am
Cathy shouldn’t be rebutting baby rumors. She should be having babies. That is her No. 1 job, the payment for all the pretty dresses and Bentley limousines. Heir, spare, boom and boom, and then she can go back to perma-dieting.
I don’t want to sound retrograde or anything, but she’s over 30 now. She doesn’t have all the time in the world.
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Bitter Scribe said on September 14, 2012 at 11:45 am
Once when I was having dinner with my former stepdaughter, the waitress approached us and asked hesitantly, “Are you guys dating?”
We started laughing and I said, “That would put me into Woody Allen territory. I used to be married to her mother.”
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brian stouder said on September 14, 2012 at 11:50 am
She doesn’t have all the time in the world.
Well ya know – from my perspective – if Pammy suddenly decided to sunbathe topless, I’d interpret that as a BRIGHT, FLASHING NEON SIGN saying “you are cleared for approach”.
Of course, I’d also be afraid that she might have some sort of medical issue engulfing her brain – and we’d really have to address that, at some point
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beb said on September 14, 2012 at 12:00 pm
It’s hard to believe that someone once thought this was necessary – a machine for washing beasts (not cow’s udders for which there are machines as well as automatically attaching milking machines)
http://boingboing.net/2012/09/14/a-machine-for-washing-breasts.html
Cathy Cambridge? I am so out of it when it comes to fashions.
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Prospero said on September 14, 2012 at 12:10 pm
Danny, yes and yes. Of course the movie had to do with the attacks, if only being used as a smokescreen. And given the people involved in it’s production, Terry Jones (the Koran burner), militia types, radical fundagelicals, and the facts about their trying to lay it at the doorstep of Jewish groups, there is no doubt whatever it is hate speech. And hell no, given all that, I don’t need to have seen it to decide that. I’ll take Morris Dees’ word on that. And when free speech and religious bigotry collide, real Americans don’t try to make some tortured self-aggrandizing thing out of it, as Willard did, to his eternal disgrace, they choose to denounce bigotry. As for the dickheads that made that movie with the intent of causing violence, I choose to withhold the benefit of the doubt where it’s not deserved. If you are accusing me of bigotry against bigots, I plead guilty. Oh, there are also connections with the hate group behind the mass murderer Breivik. Pretty much indefensible bunch of scum.
Far as I know, Woody Allen never tried to burn down a casino full of people. “Donde esta the gin?” is hilarious. And those two guys were nature’s way of telling you MiThe issue with the photos is the scummy nature of the photogs using long lenses to invade privacy. But I wouldn’t want anybody to think I would limit these sleazebags freedom of speech.
And the Kate pictures I saw had a nice shot of the Duchess mooning while lotion was applied. I don’t think she looks overly thin in any of the pictures. Great looking legs, for one thing. She just looks athletic to me.
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alex said on September 14, 2012 at 12:23 pm
Danny, did you read the article Pros linked to?
One doesn’t have to see the film to know that it’s inflammatory any more than one has to eat shit in order to know it’s shit. Puhleeze. In the Islamic religion, depictions of the prophet Muhammad are strictly forbidden. When you look at the parties behind the effort, it’s pretty clear they knew exactly what they were doing. If there isn’t a law against inciting terrorism abroad, there ought to be one.
Speaking of free speech, in this country not only do you have a right to insult people’s religious sensibilities, if you’re a journalist anymore you’re expected to insult people’s intelligence.
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Prospero said on September 14, 2012 at 12:34 pm
Defending abject bigotry in the name of free speech is a rock for a coward and a bigot to crawl under. That’s what RMoney is doing by doubling down on his egregious bullshit today. POS needs to STFU.
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Bitter Scribe said on September 14, 2012 at 1:06 pm
I am emphatically not interested in how bigoted, inflammatory or hateful that movie or video or prank or whatever the hell it is, may be. As far as I’m concerned, that matters less than an ice cube in hell compared to the death of that ambassador and the other victims. If Middle Eastern countries are going to erupt in murderous temper tantrums every time some nobody makes a video seen by nobody, they will be impossible to deal with and will make no progress. Arab Spring my ass.
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Prospero said on September 14, 2012 at 1:24 pm
Scribe. Congress decided in its wisdom (hak, koff)
not to protect embassies with armed forces And it’s my belief that American citizens that create hate speech with no conceivable purpose but to foment violence are guilty of crimes and should be punished, no matter what some effete crook like RMoney says about free speech.
Sheldon Adelson expects a large return on his GOPer investment:
http://www.americanprogressaction.org/issues/tax-reform/report/2012/09/11/12008/sheldon-adelsons-return-on-investment/
Crooks stick together.
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coozledad said on September 14, 2012 at 1:59 pm
The scale of the Romney campaign’s lies has transcended simple stupid political rhetoric. His advisers are displaying a willful ignorance of history:
“There’s a pretty compelling story that if you had a President Romney, you’d be in a different situation,” Romney adviser Richard Williamson told the Washington Post. “For the first time since Jimmy Carter, we’ve had an American ambassador assassinated.”
As one of Wonkette’s commenters reminds us:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Laurence_Foley
You don’t hand jackleg motherfuckers like Romney the nuclear football. You just don’t.
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Danny said on September 14, 2012 at 1:59 pm
Bitter, exactly. We’ve got 4 dead at an embassy and some here give greater objection to my use of Hitchens’ accurately descriptive “Muslim Rage Boy” comment.
One doesn’t have to see the film to know that it’s inflammatory any more than one has to eat shit in order to know it’s shit. Puhleeze. In the Islamic religion, depictions of the prophet Muhammad are strictly forbidden. When you look at the parties behind the effort, it’s pretty clear they knew exactly what they were doing. If there isn’t a law against inciting terrorism abroad, there ought to be one.
Alex, your argument depends upon this film having anything to do with the riots… which many reports indicate it did not. And dude, seriously… you have to be conflicted near the point of self-immolation in defending Sharia law regarding depictions of the Muhammad. Just typing those words must have felt like you were eating a crap sandwich! Nothing short of conversion to Islam will please the people whom you seem worried about offending. They are in constant ready-to-riot mode.
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coozledad said on September 14, 2012 at 2:08 pm
Bigotry is a by-product of idiocy, but it’s ultimately the more savagely destructive of the two traits.
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Danny said on September 14, 2012 at 2:08 pm
Your link does not indicate Foley was an ambassador. And while we’re all in high dudgeon regarding what a Romney administration might portend, reports are that the whereabouts of Ambassador Stevens were unknown for something like 8 hours and that Obama went to bed without a briefing and without knowing the situation. Pretty amateurish for 9/11.
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Bitter Scribe said on September 14, 2012 at 2:08 pm
Prospero, I’m going to tell you the same thing I’m trying to tell the right-wing nitwits who are trying to blame Obama for not “reinforcing” the embassies: An embassy is not supposed to be a military base or a fortress. Protecting an embassy is the responsibility of the host nation.
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Prospero said on September 14, 2012 at 2:12 pm
The question is not whether the trailer and other bits of the movie are hate speech. If it commits the grossest insults imaginable against a religion and it’s produced by people identified as purveyors of hatred by the SPLc, I feel safe in figuring anyone with a brain recognizes it as hate speech. To the extent this is an issue, that results from ignorant schmuck Mitt injecting himself in unseemly and grotesquely unpatriotic fashion into a terrible situation because he thought he could make a self-aggrandizing grandstand play. When he splatted on the pavement of public opinion, his foul coven of familiars huddled and decided to claim Willard was defending free speech. Two problems with that approach: Hate speech is not protected absolutely, and RMoney was trampling on the tragic death of a very brave man who was murdered while serving his country most admirably. Oh, and the one other problem: it took 24 hours to devise this incredibly lameass excuse scenario. Sometimes you should just apologize dumbass. And then, there’s is calling something an apology that isn’t remotely apologetic. Mitt shat the bed, screwed the pooch, and managed to stick his own head way the hell up his anus, and apologists like Danny have as hard a time admitting this as Mittens does. Sad excuse for a human being, much less a Presidential candidate. Mitt, when nobody agrees with you but $Palin, John Kyl and Rash Limpballs, you should probably reconsider before doubling down, shit-for-brains numbnuts.
So it came from the great and powerful neurasthenic Brit twit Hitchens, is “Muslim Rage Boy” supposed to be clever in some fashion. Crass? Yep. Vulgar as hell? Absolutely. Basically stupid. And Sharia is law, by definition. Sharia law is a dumb redundancy. And pretending to have misunderstood what Alex said about pictures of the Prophet? Hell, Danny, you brought up Piss Christ. Is a non-Christian supposed to worry about your reaction. Guess you missed the part about “Love thy neighbor as thyself.”
American embassies were always protected by American troops until the Beirut embassy bombing in 1983. Embassies aren’t supposed to house spies either, but how many embassies anywhere, no matter the country, do you suppose have no spies stationed in them.
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alex said on September 14, 2012 at 2:12 pm
Danny, you are just plain full of it. Evangelicals are always imputing their own motives to others. They think gay people are all about trying to “recruit” and “convert” people because they have no other frame of reference for human interaction.
The Arab world doesn’t give a flying fuck about converting you, me or anyone to Islam. They aren’t about annihilating Christianity either. That’s just pure fantasy from the pulpits of the low church. The Arab world resents our defense of Israel and that’s it, plain and simple.
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Danny said on September 14, 2012 at 2:16 pm
Bitter, very good point. I went to school with a marine who was an embassy guard in a very hairy place near the end of the cold war when the situation was in flux. He was a total maniac bad-ass, but had no illusions of grandeur with respect to what he could do in a dire situation. And I have another very close friend who is a diplomat in the Foreign Service who would say the same. I think he knew Stevens too, but I haven’t talked to him yet.
EDIT: Alex, I feel like we have a scene coming up like in “My Cousin Vinny” where I have to stand up and say, “everything that guy just said is a bunch of bullshit.” Hilarious. Evangelical projection is the problem plaguing the world. Please pass that bong. I have a very busy day and may need some of that.
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Sherri said on September 14, 2012 at 2:19 pm
Danny, I’m the one who called you out on the “Muslim Rage Boy” comment, and I stand by that. It takes a deliberate misreading of what I wrote, though, to twist that into my giving a greater objection to that than to the embassy attack, and I don’t appreciate you accusing me of that.
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LAMary said on September 14, 2012 at 2:26 pm
I hear from my local fundamentalists that there’s a war on Christianity in the US. Talk about bullshit.
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Prospero said on September 14, 2012 at 2:42 pm
Willard sits down to talk to the wrong guy.
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Prospero said on September 14, 2012 at 3:22 pm
An essay on the Little House books.
Today is the anniversary of John Gardner killing himself on a murdercycle:
http://bnreview.barnesandnoble.com/t5/Daybook/Gardner-amp-Grendel/ba-p/8839
Gardner’s novels always reminded me of what G. K. Chesterton said about the Christian ideal, that it “hadn’t been tried and found wanting, it had been found difficult and left untried.” At some point in, say, Sunlight Dialogs, you just have to realize that this guy just knows more thaan other people, and drink in the intoxicating overflow of knowledge and arcana.
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Bitter Scribe said on September 14, 2012 at 3:37 pm
“American embassies were always protected by American troops until the Beirut embassy bombing in 1983. ”
I think the hostages in Tehran in 1976 would be very surprised to learn that.
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Dorothy said on September 14, 2012 at 3:39 pm
That was lovely, Prospero. Thanks.
Hostages were taken in Tehran in 1979, not 1976, Bitter Scribe. It was just days after I got married.
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MarkH said on September 14, 2012 at 3:44 pm
Marines were there and on duty in Tehran on Nov. 4, 1979. Their numbers were small and they were easily overwhelmed.
EDIT – Marines are still in charge of security at U.S. consular facilities throughout the world. Their mission is the security of classified material within the facility. Embassy grounds are considered sovereign soil of the embassy’s nation. Scribe is correct that protection of the outside perimeter is the at the discretion of the host nation.
http://www.mcesg.marines.mil/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marine_Security_Guard
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mark said on September 14, 2012 at 3:50 pm
Wow, is Jay Carney ever in denial. http://freebeacon.com/carney-protests-not-directed-at-the-united-states/
If these events are just a natural Muslim response to a US based hate film, it’s strange that the much larger Muslim populations in Malaysia and Indonesia aren’t burning embassies.
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Danny said on September 14, 2012 at 4:11 pm
MarkH, I emailed you several weeks back. Did you get it?
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Prospero said on September 14, 2012 at 4:11 pm
Well Mark@41, there were pro-American gatherings all over Libya in the past day:
http://www.nydailynews.com/news/world/pro-american-rallies-benghazi-libya-gallery-1.1158457
So you may be missing something. One way or another, nothing explains away Willard’s blunderbuss misfire, nor his asinine after-the-fact excuse/explanation/apology, whatever that was supposed to be.
Glad you liked that, Dorothy. It’s just about convinced me to give the books a try. Better get a Nook first, though, that might look kinda creepy at the pool.
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Catherine said on September 14, 2012 at 4:43 pm
Mark, the WSJ reports: “In India, thousands of Kashmiri Muslims protested Friday against the video, burning U.S. flags and calling U.S. President Barack Obama a terrorist, the AP reported.” That good enough for ya?
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coozledad said on September 14, 2012 at 4:49 pm
Catherine: These are just the first of the back flips they’ve been called on to repeat for Romney’s benefit. It’ll get even more involute, believe me.
Country first, my ass.
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MarkH said on September 14, 2012 at 4:56 pm
Danny, my apologies. My personal email gets checked about once a week and I surely missed it. I’ll scour through tonight and respond.
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Danny said on September 14, 2012 at 4:59 pm
MarkH, I’ll email you again tomorrow if you cannot find it.
And now for something completely different.. Jennifer Granholm on the Dating Game circa 1978:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b4FJIP-eZCA&feature=player_embedded
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Deborah said on September 14, 2012 at 4:59 pm
The then Ambassador to Cambodia’s private residence was bombed in the late 90s. I know him personally and have heard the story about this first hand. He wasn’t hurt but he had to throw himself over his children to protect them from shrapnel etc.
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brian stouder said on September 14, 2012 at 5:02 pm
Mark at 41 – huh.
That website you linked to is quite bizarre, so after looking at their Flying Monkey headlines, I clicked their ‘who we are’ button, and found this:
The Washington Free Beacon, a project of the 501(c)4 Center for American Freedom, is a nonprofit online newspaper that began publication on February 7, 2012. Dedicated to uncovering the stories that the professional left hopes will never see the light of day, the Free Beacon produces in-depth and investigative reporting on a wide range of issues, including public policy, government affairs, international security, and media criticism. Whether it’s exposing cronyism, dissecting the relationship between the progressive movement and the mainstream media, finding out just who is shaping our domestic and foreign policy and why, or highlighting the threats to American security and peace in a dangerous world, the Free Beacon is committed to serving the public interest by reporting news and information that currently is not being fully covered by other news organizations.
So – I’ll give them the preferred parking that their impairment earns them, and you’ll pardon me if I never believe anything that they say, about anything
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MarkH said on September 14, 2012 at 5:37 pm
Wow, Brian, stupendous. So it doesn’t matter that Carney’s actual quote is there for everyone to see and hear. Or, that an msnbc video clip is the source. Being re-displayed on a site whose described purpose you find revolting seals the deal and you conclude it’s a lie. Unless you have proof the whole thing was doctored.
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Prospero said on September 14, 2012 at 5:58 pm
Damn, the reactionary cadre here has sure gotten touchy to the point of tetchy since Willard’s head exploded.
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Charlotte said on September 14, 2012 at 6:13 pm
Is it time yet to ask: Donde esta the gin? (which might be my new favorite phrase) …
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Prospero said on September 14, 2012 at 6:41 pm
Mark @41: Well, another headline at that website claims:
Mandatory Defense Cuts Would Slash Funding To Security At Embassies, Report Says.
Congress did so quite a while ago, so that one is obviously at least a gross exageration or a scare fabrication. And I don’t think any weapons were held to temples to put those mandatory spending cuts through. Unless you consider Boehner’s economic precipice an active threat.
Trailer for the Spielberg Lincoln movie.
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Prospero said on September 14, 2012 at 6:58 pm
Excellent piece on Ambassador Stevens:
http://www.foreignpolicy.com/articles/2012/09/12/the_tragic_optimism_of_an_american_diplomat
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Danny said on September 14, 2012 at 7:06 pm
Gawd, if you scan through the posts today, the reading gives the essence of one of those cartoon flip-books where the character does something surprisingly entertaining. The Muslim world is a angry, boiling, deadly riot and all some of you guys want to do is cry about the Christians. I mean… Really?!?
Stevens did seem like a heck of a guy. What an absolute tragedy.
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LAMary said on September 14, 2012 at 7:07 pm
Little update: Catherine’s advice just knocked about 150k off the ex’s demands. It’s not enough but it’s a start. You so rock, Catherine.
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Danny said on September 14, 2012 at 7:08 pm
Well that is good news!
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Prospero said on September 14, 2012 at 7:37 pm
Indonesia is in on the irrational behavior:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/middle-east-live/2012/sep/14/friday-protests-anti-islam-us-film-live
It’s pretty much everywhere.
YouTube has a formal request from the Obama Administration to take the video down, but hasn’t done so. Shut the mofos down. Bastards certaianly can’t make any claims to free speech tights. I was trying to listen to the song Tulane by Chuck Berry this am and was denied beecause of some dickhead YouTube copyright claim. What the hell is wrong with people.
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Prospero said on September 14, 2012 at 7:42 pm
Damnining commentary from the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette:
http://www.post-gazette.com/stories/opinion/editorials/romneys-gamble-he-uses-a-day-of-american-loss-for-political-points-653278/
That baseless criticism calls into question not only his judgment but also his sensitivity, sense of decency and even his humanity.
The Virginian-Pilot:
http://app.mx3.americanprogressaction.org/e/er?s=785&lid=128930&elq=535b8769b4824ff9aeb52f89aa01c55c
Romney’s vile assertion…is so far beyond the pale, so far beyond the bounds of American civil discourse that the Republican candidate should be ashamed of himself.
That defense of free speech bullshit? Ain’t gonna fly, Willard.
Creepy SOB.
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Holly said on September 14, 2012 at 8:47 pm
Watched the Bears last night. Wanted to cry.
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Catherine said on September 14, 2012 at 8:47 pm
Mary, I’m so glad! I hope the situation keeps going on that trajectory.
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coozledad said on September 14, 2012 at 9:02 pm
Charlotte: At this point in my life “Donde esta the gin?” is one of those sharp rhetorical questions I keep trying to answer with oatmeal and positive thoughts.
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alex said on September 14, 2012 at 9:22 pm
The Muslim world is a angry, boiling, deadly riot and all some of you guys want to do is cry about the Christians. I mean… Really?!?
Only the ones who brought this whole damn thing on.
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Sue said on September 14, 2012 at 10:23 pm
Wisconsin Act 10 has been struck down, but only for municipal employees and teachers. It should be interesting to see where this goes. I don’t think this will do it, the State supreme court is firmly behind Walker and I’m thinking they’ll waste no time re-instating it, maybe using Van Hollen’s request to reinstate voter ID as the reason to go into session, thus killing two birds with one stone.
I heard the news and it just made me tired.
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Kaye said on September 14, 2012 at 10:44 pm
Wanted to watch the Packers/Bears last night but Time Warner was not cooperative. NFL? Sure thing. NHL? Ok. NFL? Nope!
The Vanity Fair article linked here earlier this week was wonderful. Saw the writer, Michael Lewis, on the Rachel Maddow Show that night or the next. Good stuff. Once upon a time I subscribed to VF, may have to again.
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coozledad said on September 14, 2012 at 10:45 pm
alex: I can’t see any meaningful distinction between the useful idiots in Al Qaeda and the Family Research Council. They’re both deeply committed to misogyny and the down-low.
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Sherri said on September 14, 2012 at 10:46 pm
Kaye, if you like football and Michael Lewis, you should read The Blind Side. It bears only a passing resemblance to the Sandra Bullock movie (pun intended.)
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coozledad said on September 14, 2012 at 11:04 pm
The Muslim world is a angry, boiling, deadly riot and all some of you guys want to do is cry about the Christians. I mean… Really?!?
In addition to being nearly incoherent and an utter mess of vacation bible school syntax, this is a textbook case of riding the fringes of a pogrom. Whippin’ it up.
You go, Danny boy.
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brian stouder said on September 15, 2012 at 12:20 am
LA Mary, that is tremendous news. In any case, I don’t know what joy or satisfaction (or whatever) that a person gets, from burdening and punishing the mother of one’s children. In the short run – let alone the longer run – how much fun can that be?
And Danny, if one actually accepted your sweeping premise (with emphasis added) – The Muslim world is a angry, boiling, deadly riot, then what are the implications?
Should we recognize any nation state that is majority Muslim? Should we have any embassy in any such place?
Afterall, if these “human beings” are really just a big ol’ “angry, boiling” stew-pot full of cut-throats and anarchists, then to hell with them, right?
See, I think we have conflation-inflation going on here. The attacks in Libya were quite different from the unrest in Cairo. The Muslim-baiting “movie” may well be at the heart of the unrest in Egypt, whereas the al Qaeda attack in Libya has nothing whatever to do with a cultural soapbubble like the stupid movie.
Really, if we paraphrase a little bit of W-era wisdom (such as it was), al Qaeda must absolutely LOVE it when Americans on the “American street” default into viewing people who live in the middle east and North Africa as simply one big “angry boiling deadly riot”; and every American who ends up accepting that particular etch-a-sketch image represents another victory for al Qaeda. (not for nothing, but aQ has killed lots and lots and lots of human beings who are Muslim; I’d say their body count is “majority Muslim”)
The September 11 date, and the emergence of this “movie”, and the unrest in Egypt, and the all-out assault in Libya – not on our embassy, but at a supposed “safe house” where the ambassador and his former SEAL bodyguards looks like an orchestrated bit of concurrent mayhem… which sort of matches just exactly how that particular non-state actor operates, yes?
And the spectacle of a major American political figure “cannon-balling” (so to speak) into the fray is just a double-bonus for our non-state, deadly earnest and nihilistic enemies abroad
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brian stouder said on September 15, 2012 at 12:42 am
and by the way – since the crescendo of “Bush’s mechanisms and infrastructure deserve the credit for killing bin Laden” is rising again, I visited Uncle Google to find the news I remember reading – back in the day – which made me MAD as hell at the time, about how the United States was giving up the chase of bin Laden, and I found this one:
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/07/04/washington/04intel.html?_r=0
the lead, from the 4th of July, 2006 article:
WASHINGTON, July 3 — The Central Intelligence Agency has closed a unit that for a decade had the mission of hunting Osama bin Laden and his top lieutenants, intelligence officials confirmed Monday. The unit, known as Alec Station, was disbanded late last year and its analysts reassigned within the C.I.A. Counterterrorist Center, the officials said.
The decision is a milestone for the agency, which formed the unit before Osama bin Laden became a household name and bolstered its ranks after the Sept. 11 attacks, when President Bush pledged to bring Mr. bin Laden to justice “dead or alive.” The realignment reflects a view that Al Qaeda is no longer as hierarchical as it once was, intelligence officials said, and a growing concern about Qaeda-inspired groups that have begun carrying out attacks independent of Mr. bin Laden and his top deputy, Ayman al-Zawahiri.
It made me very angry then, and it still makes me angry; I wanted to see that son of a bitch’s head at the end of a pike.
And when President Obama took office – he shifted priorities, and put lots and lots of assets back onto finding bin Laden’s ass, and then plugging him. And when that renewed effort produced the chance, Obama kept the promise he made during the campaign, and risked his presidency in the process.
Sean shit-for-brains Hannity (et al) to the contrary notwithstanding, had Obama not won the presidency four years ago, Vice President Palin would be busily trying to label bin Laden’s latest 9/11 video (no doubt exulting over the troubles in Libya and Egypt) as another example of how our lame-stream media is really all in cahoots with the enemies of America….or some such
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MichaelG said on September 15, 2012 at 12:02 pm
I’m really pleased to hear that, Mary. I hope you’re starting a roll here. My thoughts are with you.
Maybe that Mohammed video was inflammatory. Maybe releasing it in the Middle East was inflammatory. But it was a gesture with a readily predictable reaction. It was like poking a stick at a caged mad dog. I’ve long had a profound distaste for Islam. It’s a religion that consigns half of humanity to a vastly lower tier existence, almost a life of slavery in many places. Yes, I know about the Southern Baptists and I know about the Catholics and the rest and their sad attitudes toward women and I condemn that but none are as harsh and as brutal toward women as the gentle, peace loving Muslims.
The reactions of gentle, peace loving Muslims to supposed insults to their book, their prophet and their religion are simply stark raving mad. From the cartoons in Denmark to the treatment of that poor girl in Pakistan to the present idiocy and the thousands of other irrational attacks on their own and others, the gentle, peace loving Muslims have proved time and again that their religion is one of hate and violence and intolerance.
How is it that a stupid video lampooning their prophet is worse than burning, looting and killing? I might also add that I have seen no statement from any gentle, peace loving Muslim organization in this country or elsewhere condemning the violence. They only seem to surface to claim victimhood when somebody beats up a gentle, peace loving Muslim person. If this is religion, I want no part of it.
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Jim Neill said on September 15, 2012 at 1:19 pm
MichaelG…Google “Muslims condemn Libya attacks”.
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Danny said on September 15, 2012 at 1:34 pm
In addition to being nearly incoherent and an utter mess of vacation bible school syntax, this is a textbook case of riding the fringes of a pogrom. Whippin’ it up.
Hilarious. I was admittedly rushed when I typed that. Very busy day yesterday. However, nit-picking grammar in a forum such as this is usually a strong indicator that one has no argument. You must be an absolute beast on Twitter.
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Danny said on September 15, 2012 at 1:45 pm
And Danny, if one actually accepted your sweeping premise (with emphasis added) – The Muslim world is a angry, boiling, deadly riot, then what are the implications?
Brian, I was using that euphemistically to describe the current situation where it seems that we are seeing unrest at about 8-10 embassies in the Mideast and North Africa. Quite a large swath of territory if you ask me.
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MarkH said on September 15, 2012 at 1:57 pm
Don’t back down now, Danny.
MichaelG, that was very well put @71, but of course, will go nowhere with many here, who would be well served to enlighten them selves about Islam. And I am not talking about any Christian oriented enlightenment.
Jim, there are many “moderate” muslims who are condemning these attacks, but their number is shrinking in direct proportion to their withering backbone.
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brian stouder said on September 15, 2012 at 2:12 pm
OK. So then – what would you have us do?
In my opinion, President Obama has responded superbly. He yanked Egypt’s chain a bit, and that government is responding in an affirmative way – acting with police power to try and restore order and/or push the mobs away from foreign embassies (most especially including ours).
Not a lot to do in Libya, other than retaliating specifically against the bad actors there….and in all honesty, I would not bet against President Obama when it comes to very specifically settling the score, with the chuckleheads who murdered our ambassador. Would you?
This is why Romney looks so specifically delusional and – if you’ll pardon the expression – unAmerican in his lightening-quick, ham-handed* political response.
Danny [edit: and MarkH], do you agree with Governor Romney? Do you think the president’s response has been a “disgrace”? Or that they have “set a terrible course”? Or that the Obama administration seems to “sympathize with those who waged the attacks”?
If you [edit: and MarkH] do agree with Romney, that’s fine; I suppose we’re then simply irreconcilable on this topic and should move on the next thing.
*not intended as an anti-Muslim slur
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Danny said on September 15, 2012 at 2:40 pm
Brian, my statement was not regarding Romney. I already said yesterday that I thought he may have stepped in it a bit and may have been too quick on the draw and that it was probably a misguided effort to get some Foreign Policy mojo. Other than that, I do not know how this will play out. The story is changing too rapidly and we may need to give it a week or so to know if the handling of the situation was correct or not.
What my statement was in regard to specifically is that a few folks here have had virtually nothing bad to say about the Muslims, but have been having a major bitch-fest about Christians… some are even somehow blaming all of this violence on Christians. Talk about a sweeping generalization. Take a look at Alex’s last comment.
The Muslim world is a angry, boiling, deadly riot and all some of you guys want to do is cry about the Christians. I mean… Really?!?
Only the ones who brought this whole damn thing on.
Don’t you think that it is bat-sh–t crazy … er.. a tad bit ludicrous that all of this craziness is going on and yet, Christianity is what they are end up complaining about? I do.
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David C. said on September 15, 2012 at 5:50 pm
I guess I have the benefit of knowing actual living, breathing Muslims. I can tell you it’s damn difficult to paint broad-brushed caricatures of those you actually know. Hyde and Ibrahim are great guys and fishing buddies, Adnan is an asshole. I find this is the same great person to jerk ratio that I find in the general population – what a surprise. None of them, are Jihadis, none of their wives are oppressed. They are neither angry nor boiling – even the asshole. So please, can your ignorant opinions of Muslims.
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Minnie said on September 15, 2012 at 10:07 pm
Thank you, David C.
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