Thursday, May 26, 2005

My Movie?

Ok... I know that Star Wars fan will discuss from now til doomsday whether Lucas has the right to mess around with Star Wars IV- A New Hope. He was the creator, but we all feel that we sorta own Star Wars and want the Star Wars we grew up with...One can say it's more then Han shot first- as Greedo didn't draw for his gun.

HOWEVER...

That said The Godfather is NOT the Godfather without the level of violence it has. If you don't want to watch it because of the violence... Don't. There are other more friendly Italian American movies.

The Family Entertainment and Copyright Act (FECA) W. signed a couple of weeks ago seeks to fix things to help make films MORE family orientated. It allows good CHRISTIAN companies the right to edit movies, so that they can be good FAMILY ENTERTAINMENT


"This exception to copyright protection," said DGA spokesman Morgan Rumpf, "could have far-reaching implications that cannot fully be comprehended today -- allowing third-party editing companies to change the political content of a film, to revise the historical record, to profit from abridged versions of films, and even to make versions of films that focus on violent and sexually explicit content."


This disgusts me. I'm adult, I watch what I want and don't watch stuff that I think is too violent or has sexuality that I find offensive.
I have adult dvds, and even though I live alone, they are in my bedroom- away from my other dvds. If I had kids, I would put the dvds they could watch in one section and R rated slash movies I didn't want them to watch elsewhere. I would explain things to them...
I would NOT buy a movie edited by a religious nut job to make the movie 'safe' for my kids. I was allowed to see Jaws at like age 7, and I'm not a cannibal taking BITES out of people. My mom allowed me to read the 'adult' Heavy Metal and National Lampoon when I was 14 and I don't think I'm any more degenerate then any of my friends.
While all my parents worked, they took the time to explain things to me... what I was allowed to do, what I wasn't allowed to see and WHY.

I feel that editing the movie is WRONG, mainly on an artistic level, but also to the kids. If you clean everything up then they won't learn anything.
The world is NOT child friendly. No effort from the right wing will make it so... There will always be people who wish to prey on the young- and the best way to protect them is to explain it to the kids that while yes the Godfather is a wonderful movie, they're not old enough for it now but we can all watch Corky Romano.

That said I also think the Godfather is a work of ART, as are most movies. IF you don't like the vision the director came out with, don't buy it. I haven't bought the DVD version of Star Wars because Lucas edited it, it is not the piece of art I fell in love with. I don't think that anyone should be allowed to change a movie without the director's approval. It's HIS/HER name on the movie.
And that I think is one of the interesting things about people editing these movies... They always say 'it's for the kids'( ya know Kids shouldn't see R rated movies?) but I've yet to read a story with the Christian company saying "yeah we spoke to the director and he said it was ok.'

I guess they're afraid that EVEN IF the director said yes, he'd want some bribe money and that's not Christian.

Tuesday, May 24, 2005

F' them All!

I woke up too darn early today day, as is my habit... and I logged on to find out where the 'nuclear option' protests are taking place. On the moveon.org's front page they announced that there was VICTORY on the Nuclear Option.
HOWEVER their report "The only way the "nuclear option" comes back is if the Republicans break their agreement." made bells and whistles go off in my head. A) I had to see what agreement this was and b) I assume that the republicans will break ANY agreement as soon as say agreement becomes inconvenient for them... or breaking it will win votes with their base.

The deal SUX. I read it in my local paper. The democrats once again sold us out.... with Lieberman leading the wuss out.
Basically the dems allow 3 judicial canidates out of committee, including Priscilla Owen one of the people the Dems didn't want, and they PROMISED that filibusters would be used against judicial nominees only "under extraordinary circumstances" by the Democratic minority.

What the HECK!!???!!!

So the democrats say- please let us have the power to filibuster.,.. and we promise not to use it?

The only people this helps is the republicans. They can say in 06, and 08 when McCain tries to run for president again, that THEY were willing to deal with the democrats. That THEY have done EVERYTHING in their power to keep America going... unlike those godless, gay, democrats.

Once again the democrats, lead by the Anti Christ Lieberman, bent over and asked the republicans for table scraps. And once again I'm sick of them.

I want a new party... or two or three. I want a party that will say F' YOU! to the republicans.
I want a party that when the head of the party( Dr. Dean) says that DeLay should be in JAIL... doesn't say 'there Dean goes again.' but says "Yeah! That's the ticket.'
I want a party where when the president LIES to them and sends soldiers to die for his lies... They go "Wait a second, what's all this then?"
I want a government where when they find out about prison abuse... they actually find who's to blame for this HORROR instead of just blaming the grunt who was just following orders.

I want a revolution.. And I want it NOW!

Sunday, May 22, 2005

The Nuclear Option

Hi!

I just signed MoveOn PAC's emergency petition to stop
the "nuclear option" the far right wing's plan to
seize absolute power to stack our courts -– and I hope
you will sign too.

Starting Monday, the petition will be delivered
straight to Congress every three hours until the final
vote, and many of our comments will be read aloud on
the Senate floor.

Please sign right now at:

http://www.moveonpac.org/nuclear

Why is this an emergency?

This Tuesday, the Senate will vote on Republican
Leader Bill Frist's "nuclear option" to break the
rules of the Senate and give the Republican Party
absolute control over appointing federal judges.

For 200 years the minority's right to filibuster has
kept our courts fair, by making sure that federal
judges needed to get at least some support from both
sides of the aisle before they were given life time
appointments.

If Frist eliminates the filibuster, his next step
would be to force far right partisan judges onto the
powerful U.S. Courts of Appeals. The real targets,
however, are the four seats on the Supreme Court
likely to become vacant in the next four years.

With that much power on the Supreme Court, the far
right could strike down decades of progress on labor
rights, environmental protections, reproductive
rights, and privacy.

The "nuclear option" will live or die by a final vote,
probably on Tuesday, and the vote is still way too
close to call. There are at least 6 moderate
Republicans still on the fence and only 3 more votes
needed to win. If we can get enough of our voices into
congress and into the streets in the next 72 hours, we
can still save our courts.

Please take a minute to join me and sign the emergency
petition today.

http://www.moveonpac.org/nuclear

Thanks!

Saturday, May 21, 2005

The world hates us because Newsweek prints LIES

Been meaning to blog about this all week, but kept forgetting.

The story- as *I*, and in the Boston Phoenix story linked above, see it is Newsweek heard from a source that in a pentagon report Muslim prisoners were forced to piss on their holy book. Newsweek prints this because they feel it's news- that Bush's CHRISTIAN soldiers are treating our 'foes' in such a manner. The Pentagon goes on spin control and says that the story is TOTALLY WRONG, and the report says no such thing.

Now to me, this is where it gets darn funny/sad as many neo-con stories have a habit of doing. The Pentagon has NOT released this report. The American people, and the world, don't know the REAL truth because the report is in the hand of the pentagon and politicians... not in the hand of the media and the people.
However, the white house in typical W. fashion demanded an apology from Newsweek and blamed ALL casualties since the report ON NEWSWEEK. They say because of Newsweek's 'error' people have lost lives and America has lost credibility.
God. I was I was making this up. Because it means that the problem with the US and Iraq is NOT Lynndie England but newspapers reporting about Lynndie England.

I especially liked the quote in the editoral part of the same Phoenix paper from a right wing blogger.
"Whether Americans flushed the Koran down the toilet is irrelevant. Newsweek should not have reported it, even if true. It's common sense, people. Those journalists knew how Muslims would react! Why would you hurt your own country and risk more deaths just to report this fact, To what end???"


Because the truth DESERVES to be told. Because if Bush is telling the world he's trying to protect FREEDOM, the rest of the world should know HOW he's protecting them. Because the only way for us to show we're better then the terrorists of 9/11 is by our ACTIONS.
And I think everyone deserves to know exactly what sort of war we're fighting- whether it's a holy war, a war for oil, or a little of both. I don't think it's to liberate the Iraqis... Because if we were doing something good- I don't think W. and the pentagon would be so secret.

The story sounds believable, heck I've read of other equally bad torture stuff at Gitmo to be true.... Perhaps Newsweek should've tried to have more then one freaking source before they published, but on the other hand perhaps the pentagon could've revealed the report instead of just blaming Newsweek for everything. Perhaps if the US treated it's prisoners better, the Muslims wouldn't have believed the story... or perhaps if the pentagon/ congress had gone after some officers following the Abu Ghraib, the Muslim world would've realized that the bad apples had been punished and were out of the system by the time the Newsweek story came to light.

We need checks and balances in our government. One check and balance is the media. It shouldn't be liberal or conservative- it should report the News- to us and the rest of the world. Whether we like the news or not, we need to know. We have a RIGHT to know.

Wednesday, May 18, 2005

I'm still here

I just want to state, for the record, that yesterday was the 1 year anniversary of Gay Marriage here in Massachusetts.

There have been no plagues- locusts, frogs or otherwise.

Our chowder( or as locals pronounce it chow-da)is still New England milky white as opposed to tomato/blood red( like that of New Yawk Chow-da).

There are no meteors hurling doom at us... nor has the weather turned nastier then usual.


HECK, gay marriage might actually be a good omen for Ma., for it was AFTER gays were allowed to get married that the Red Sox FINALLY won the world series for the first time in 80+ years.

I did find it interesting that it proved that gay or straight- women want to marry more then men as 2/3rds of the gay weddings have been females.

And that the bill- supported by Romney to change the constitution to allow civil unions but NOT gay marriages seems like it will die before it reaches the voters.

Sunday, May 08, 2005

Jesus voted for W.

Ok, the above article does NOT surprise me.

It irks me, but it's not surprising... and it's one of the reasons I'm against organized religion.

A minister has decided that Democrats are EVIL and has ex-communicated 9 people for not backing W. This means he's damned them to HELL for all eternity because they refused to back someone who has borne false witness( WMDs)[ 9th commandment], and has ORDERED people to kill[ 6th Commandment]. He has also ordered people to break the 'golden rule' as I HIGHLY doubt that W. or anyone who works at Camp X-Ray would want such a thing to happen to THEM or their relations.

I've had problems with the merging of church and state since W. came onto the scene. Priests and ministers have grown bolder as they know that the media won't challenge them.. Heck Fox News is egging them on and Frist... Well Frist is also telling people how G-d hates his enemies.

Heck I'd find it ironic if it wasn't so darn sad, that the same people who say how CHRISTIAN and GOOD W. is- failed to report that 3 days before he meet Prince Abdullah, to beg for gas, the Prince had 40 Pakistani Christians arrested for NOT being Muslim. I guess W. and his backers would rather have lower gas prices then freedom for NON American Christians- because if these people were REAL Christians- they'd be American.