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AL FRANKEN: GOD SPOKE

ArchPundit September 13, 2006 No Comments

I got my hands on an advanced copy of the new documentary/performance film on Al Franken’s life from about 2002 – 2005. It’s pretty good.

Some other comments I’ve seen suggest that it doesn’t give you any great insight into Franken and I’m not sure that’s the point. What it does well is follow him through this period and give you a good idea on what has driven him to do Air America and now consider a race for US Senate in 2008.

If you listen to Al everyday on Air America, as I do, it won’t be anything you haven’t heard many, many times. However, if you are a more casual listener, you’ll find it very funny as you won’t have heard the bits before and he’s damn funny.

At times the film seems a bit disjointed, but it might because some of the scenes were in Left on the Dial on HBO so those who have seen it will recognize those moments all centering around Air America.

However, there are several interesting scenes with him speaking to different groups and I found those the most compelling. He speaks the most honestly and urgently at those times.

It also provides the best context for his running feud with O’Reilly who hasn’t looked so foolish since OutFoxed.

If you are a fan and listen all the time, some moments will seem a bit slow, but still worth it since it’s more Al. If you are the more casual listener, I think it would be a great film to watch and to follow how his political career has evolved through several years of George Bush and quite funny. I’d definitely go see it. It opens today in New York and depending on how it does, it will spread across the country–on September 29th.

Official Site

Trailer

The Etnic Rally

ArchPundit September 12, 2006 No Comments

Not quite the same thing as one thinks of in Chicago, but George Allen had an Ethnic Rally and even has video posted on his front page.

Because I’m sure someone at the Allen Campaign will get their head out of their ass or the RNSC will be making a call very soon, Josh Marshall has a screen capture up.

So essentially, he holds an event for all non-whites and refers to them broadly as ethnic. Nevermind that the groups have little in common other than being not white.

Where were the Irish by the way? Or the Polish?

And yeah, really, seriously back tonight. I’ll explain then.

Leach in Trouble?

ArchPundit September 6, 2006 No Comments

Cool. Generally, Jim Leach is a good guy, but if you vote for Denny, you are an enabler. Taegan has the numbers.

As I’ve mentioned before, David Loebsack was my college advisor a friend, but with those numbers, he needs to increase his name ID for a chance…Donate here.

And back to normal tonight or tomorrow.

Allen Hearts Baum

ArchPundit August 29, 2006 No Comments

No surprise really, but George Allen seems to like hanging out with racist scumbags.

Gordon Baum used to host a radio show with a particular fan of mine….

I’ve discussed the CofCC before, but anyone who has a fascination with the South that Allen has demonstrated thoughout his life knows that the CofCC is an offshoot of the White Citizen’s Councils in the South. It was essentially the nice Klan and considered a more ‘reputable’ segregationist group. They also support the segregationist academies in Mississippi.

For a little fun, notice this picture here with Baum. Picture 4 shows Baum standing with a bunch of the assclowns on their Confederate Memorial Day. If you look over a few people you’ll see a guy with a suit, red hair and a goatee. That’s Frank Weltner–the guy who runs Jew Watch.

He’s a piece of shit. I’ve interviewed him briefly because he was backing a local Alderman and I was trying to expose that link . He lied repeatedly to me trying to save the Alderman’s skin. Lying is one of his better characteristics frankly.

Allen sought out the CofCC during the CPAC conference.

This man shouldn’t be a US Senator. Make sure the people of Virginia help rectify that grievous error.

UPDATE: Fixed link about Weltner. To learn more about Weltner go here.

My take on the Holt letter

The RFT article on the letter.

Democracy on the March

ArchPundit August 22, 2006 No Comments

I mean, if we leave, it might become a haven for terrorists….

Iraq’s prime minister, Nuri al-Maliki, has angrily charged American forces with undermining national reconciliation after a US-led raid in the eastern Baghdad stronghold of the radical Shia cleric Moqtada al-Sadr reportedly caused the death of three people, including a woman and a child.
The forthright criticism of US tactics comes just days after the launch of a much-publicised American-Iraqi crackdown, supported by Mr Maliki, on sectarian Sunni-Shia violence in the capital. But in a statement on government television late last night, Mr Maliki said he was “very angered and pained” by the latest operation, which involved air and ground forces in the volatile Sadr City area early yesterday morning.

“Reconciliation cannot go hand in hand with operations that violate the rights of citizens this way,” Mr Maliki said.

Travel Day

ArchPundit August 21, 2006 No Comments

Slow until tonight or the morning.

I’ll be doing an interview tomorrow morning so if all goes well, it’ll be up tomorrow—Dan Seals agreed to an interview and I’m going to use that as a guinea pig for podcasting.

The War Against Contraception

ArchPundit August 18, 2006 No Comments

It’s really not a joke that the right wing is attacking contraception, not just abortion.

The store’s head pharmacist, who knew Noesen’s concerns, had agreed to personally fill such prescriptions, but he was out of town for the weekend. Renz asked where else she could get the prescription filled. Noesen declined to tell her. Renz went to the local Wal-Mart, but when the pharmacist there attempted to transfer her prescription over the phone, Noesen refused.

So, not only would this man not dispense contraception, he wouldn’t allow the patient to have the prescription transferred.

Is it getting through how dangerous this is? It’s not just about personal conscience, it’s about substituting a far right wing view of contraception for a woman and her doctor.

Want more evidence, Illinois Family Institute is now crusading against a compromise to make Plan B available to adults without a prescription even after the FDA found it safe.

The Peter Principle

ArchPundit August 18, 2006 No Comments

You screw up and lose a huge undertaking, you get booted upwards to national organizing. Pretty impressive Petey.

For your daily funnies, you can go to Petey’s new/old project, Americans for Truth. From the looks of it, we might have more fun as Petey expands and deals with issues in science as well as family issues. I can’t wait–is Petey a believer that the Earth is 6,000 years old? Place your bets.

CIA and the Cocaine Trade out of Nicaragua

ArchPundit August 18, 2006 No Comments

Kevin Drum covers the 10th anniversary of the San Jose Mercury News’ series on the CIA ignoring that many Contra leaders were cocaine traffickers. Never mind that many were a part of Somoza’s National Guard that routinely used rape and torture to intimidate opponents–oh, and murder too.

It’s not real surprising. The night after having a drunken dinner across from the Intercontinental Hotel (no we didn’t stay there–we were in a middle class neighborhood near the US embassy) one of the key Contra leaders, Colonel Enrique Bermudez was killed in the hotel’s parking lot.

The thing is that even La Prensa, run by the then President’s brother-in-law and anti-Sandinista Chamorro family, didn’t try and blame the Sandinista’s for the death. Everyone knew it was drug related and while it was big news, it wasn’t terribly surprising.

On the State Republican Party Campaign Finance Filing

ArchPundit August 18, 2006 No Comments

I mentioned it below several days ago, it’s no big deal at all–it’s simply the accounting required by the FEC. The basic problem is the FEC has a bizarre and burdensome accounting requirement and so the state expenditures have to go to the federal account and, of course, both parties in Illinois utilize corporate donations which is legal for state expenditures.