Hollywood is starting to take on the War on Terror as well as Iraq and let’s be honest, no one is expecting John Wayne, Jimmy Stewart or William Wyler type films.

One of the first entries is Rendition (staring Jake Gyllenhaal, Reese Witherspoon and Meryl Streep) which “focuses on the practice of extraordinary renditions, or transferring terrorism suspects to other countries where their interrogators could abuse or torture them.”

Judging by this weekend’s box office numbers, Americans just don’t care. The Vampire flick "30 Days of Night" led all movies by grossing an estimated $16 million, while Rendition came in 9th place taking $4.2 million (it cost $20 million to make). How bad is that? Ben Aflack’s directorial debut "Gone Baby Gone" finished in 5th place for the weekend with $6 million in ticket sales.

Here’s hoping they all have this level of ‘success’.

Posted by: DrewM. at 07:06 PM | Comments (93)
Post contains 148 words, total size 1 kb.

Hollywood is starting to take on the War on Terror as well as Iraq and letÂ’s be honest, no one is expecting John Wayne, Jimmy Stewart or William Wyler type films.

One of the first entries is Rendition (staring Jake Gyllenhaal, Reese Witherspoon and Meryl Streep) which “focuses on the practice of extraordinary renditions, or transferring terrorism suspects to other countries where their interrogators could abuse or torture them.”

Judging by this weekendÂ’s box office numbers, Americans just donÂ’t care. The Vampire flick "30 Days of Night" led all movies by grossing an estimated $16 million, while Rendition came in 9th place taking $4.2 million (it cost $20 million to make). How bad is that? Ben AflackÂ’s directorial debut "Gone Baby Gone" finished in 5th place for the weekend with $6 million in ticket sales.

Here’s hoping they all have this level of ‘success’.

Posted by: DrewM at 07:06 PM | Comments (170)
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Hey, they dicked up the whole fat debate. They might as well dick up the whole drink debate.

Maybe a drink a day is good for you. Maybe it's not.

You know what? We're scientists. It's not like we have all the fucking answers. Half the time we can't even get a consensus on what to put on the goddamn pizza.

Scientists! Confusing your life and increasing your anxiety just because we can.

h/t ghengis, who's eagerly awaiting the results of the crack pipe studies.

Posted by: Dave In Texas at 04:41 PM | Comments (25)
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At 8 (Eastern), in a half hour, on FoxNews.

Having Brownback out finally will afford the real candidates, as well as Ron Paul, more time to answer questions.

Posted by: Ace at 03:35 PM | Comments (50)
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One would think that a person harboring assassins committed to killing their opposite number in a negotiation would be cause for doubting that person's commitment to 'the processÂ’. But in this case weÂ’re talking about the Palestinians and they get an unending number of mulligans.

According to meeting participants, (Shin Bet Director) Diskin said Palestinian gunmen had planned to attack Olmert's convoy as it entered the West Bank town of Jericho on Aug. 6 for a meeting with Abbas. Diskin told the Cabinet the gunmen were linked to Abbas' Fatah movement, said the participants, who spoke on condition of anonymity because the meeting was closed.

While Abbas oversees official Palestinian security forces, he has little control over extremist armed groups, including those loyal to Fatah, which frequently act counter to his efforts to reconcile Israel and the Palestinians.

Diskin did not say how close the militants were to carrying out the plot, and it was not clear why Olmert was allowed to proceed on his trip if there was a threat to his life.

In Jerusalem, Palestinian Prime Minster Salam Fayyad played down the incident, saying Olmert was never seriously threatened. He said three suspects were arrested, and only released after three months of questioning.

"The interrogation did not reveal according to our security services anything that was imminently dangerous," he said. Nonetheless, Palestinian officials said they re-arrested two of the men last week under Israeli pressure.

Israel on the other hand says that the plotters were members of the PA security forces and have confessed to the plan.

The plot was foiled during the summer but that hasnÂ’t stopped Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice from living in a dream world. Just this week she announced:

the United States "sees the establishment of a Palestinian state and a two-state solution as absolutely essential for the future, not just of Palestinians and Israelis but also for the Middle East and indeed to American interests."

If Abbas canÂ’t control people affiliated with his own party and possibly his own security forces (assuming he wasnÂ’t in on it), whatÂ’s the point in dealing with him? He canÂ’t control Fatah but weÂ’re supposed to believe he can get Hamas to buy into any deal he makes?

Posted by: DrewM. at 02:56 PM | Comments (19)
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CNN broadcasts the "we're all fucking the planet until she can't take no more cap'n" trifecta, with the two-night-four-hour "Planet in Peril" series.

It's got Sanjay Gupta. It's got Anderson Cooper (he's got great eyes). It's got four hours of climate change, vanishing natural habitats, disappearing species and human overpopulation.

Shriek. Amaze, agog.

Begins last February in Brazil, where they discuss the disappearing rain forest instead of those two open sewers in Sao Paulo called rivers. I've seen those and they are nasty.

16 of the world's 20 dirtiest polluting cities in China.

May I pause for a moment to note that the cleanest nations on the face of the planet are those industrialized western nations who can actually afford to clean up their shit.

And that I am weary to death of the overpopulation fright. Heard it all my goddamn life and I'm sick of it.

Oh. I just counted the perils. I was wrong on trifecta.

Well, it's a four-something thingy.

Posted by: Dave In Texas at 11:47 AM | Comments (33)
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Cold water thrown on hot air.

Posted by: Ace at 11:08 AM | Comments (58)
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Finally. He was like the Eli Manning of politics, always ready to step up but never quite managing it.

Posted by: Ace at 10:26 AM | Comments (11)
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Some enterprising terrorists thought it would be a cool idea to launch a fairly sustained attack on U.S troops in Sadar City today. Unfortunately for them they brought the proverbial knife to what turned out to be a combined arms fight.

In Sadr City, the U.S. military said "an estimated 49 criminals" were killed in three separate engagements during a raid targeting a suspected rogue Shiite militia leader specializing in kidnapping operations for which he sought funding from Iran.

U.S. troops returned fire after coming under sustained attack from automatic weapons and rocket-propelled grenades from nearby buildings as they began to raid a series of buildings in the district, according to a statement, which added that some 33 militants were killed in the firefight. Ground forces then called in airstrikes, which killed some six militants.

The U.S. troops were then attacked by a roadside bomb and continued heavy fire as they left the area, killing another 10 combatants in subsequent clashes.

"All total, coalition forces estimate that 49 criminals were killed in three separate engagements during this operation. Ground forces reported they were unaware of any innocent civilians being killed as a result of this operation," the military said in the updated statement.

There doesn’t appear to any reports of US casualties in these fights. Of course there are the usual reports of civilian casualties and insinuations that the US is indiscriminately killing women, children and wedding guests. Naturally there is no notice paid to the fact that the terrorists launched their attacks from within a residential neighborhood which almost guarantees that civilians will be caught in the middle.

My guess is that every single US serviceman and woman in Iraq would welcome the opportunity to meet the enemy toe to toe in an area away from civilians. Of course in addition to eliminating civilian deaths, it would also lead to the absolute elimination of the cowards who hide behind civilians in a matter of minutes.

Posted by: DrewM. at 08:16 AM | Comments (9)
Post contains 341 words, total size 2 kb.

Some enterprising terrorists thought it would be a cool idea to launch a fairly sustained attack on U.S troops in Sadar City today. Unfortunately for them they brought the proverbial knife to what turned out to be a combined arms fight.

In Sadr City, the U.S. military said "an estimated 49 criminals" were killed in three separate engagements during a raid targeting a suspected rogue Shiite militia leader specializing in kidnapping operations for which he sought funding from Iran.

U.S. troops returned fire after coming under sustained attack from automatic weapons and rocket-propelled grenades from nearby buildings as they began to raid a series of buildings in the district, according to a statement, which added that some 33 militants were killed in the firefight. Ground forces then called in airstrikes, which killed some six militants.

The U.S. troops were then attacked by a roadside bomb and continued heavy fire as they left the area, killing another 10 combatants in subsequent clashes.

"All total, coalition forces estimate that 49 criminals were killed in three separate engagements during this operation. Ground forces reported they were unaware of any innocent civilians being killed as a result of this operation," the military said in the updated statement.

There doesnÂ’t appear to any reports of US casualties in these fights. Of course there are the usual reports of civilian casualties and insinuations that the US is indiscriminately killing women, children and wedding guests. Naturally there is no notice paid to the fact that the terrorists launched their attacks from within a residential neighborhood which almost guarantees that civilians will be caught in the middle.

My guess is that every single US serviceman and woman in Iraq would welcome the opportunity to meet the enemy toe to toe in an area away from civilians. Of course in addition to eliminating civilian deaths, it would also lead to the absolute elimination of the cowards who hide behind civilians in a matter of minutes.

Posted by: DrewM at 08:16 AM | Comments (10)
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