Dennis Hopper Has Prostate Cancer

Dennis Hopper recites Beatnik Poetry in a 1964 episode of Petticoat Junction.

Actor/ Director Dennis Hopper best known for his Role as Billy in the classic 1969 film Easy Rider (which he also directed), Rebel Without a Cause (1956), and his role as King Koppa in the Super Mario Brothers Movie, has been diagnosed with Prostate Cancer. He is currently receiving treatment for the disease.

According to reports the 73 year old actor and 1960s counterculture figure was also hospitalized last month, exhibiting symptoms resembling those of the Flu. It is not known if that incident was cancer related.
Lets hope this storied character actor recovers.

Bardwell, Defends His Refusal to Perform Marriage Ceremony for Interracial Couple

Watch CBS News Videos Online

Not been blogging much lately, as I have been sick with a mean sinus infection complicated by my asthma and a possible cold and as of this posting still am.

Anyway there have been more developments in the case of Keith Bardwell, the Justice of the Peace in Louisiana who refused to perform a marriage ceremony for a mixed race couple because he was convinced that it would be harmful for the children. That there parents' mixed racial and ethnic heritage would open them up to rejection (likely from people who would have you know prevented them from being born in wed lock if you get my drift).

Anyway, a credit to both Sen. Mary Landrieu (D-LA) and Gov. Bobby Jindal (R-LA) have both come out and called for Bardwell to resign his position over the radical notion that somehow the function of a public official invested with the power and responsibility is to enforce the law.

Bardwell, however insists he does not have the power to deny anyone a marriage license, just to perform the ceremony and that he told them where they could have such a ceremony performed.

He also insists in the interview on the CBS Early Show posted above, that everyone hates him now, and that he didn't mean to offend the couple, and he was just trying to do them and any children they may possibly have in the future a favor by refusing to perform such a ceremony. He also says that because he informed the couple of where they could get married, this whole issue should now go away.

Now if this sanctimonious, preachy bumpkin wants to hold that segregationist mindset that is primitive, disgusting, and evidence that some are now able to keep up with the changing standards of decency and tolerance in society that is fine. Deplorable and I would be both offended and humiliated to have him represent my parish at any level, but those are his personal "beliefs" and those can't and shouldn't be forcefully changed. Despite that, he can be demanded and should to enforce the law as required or resign. And if he doesn't do either, he should be forced from office.

When did that somehow become a radical notion?

Update: In other angry white man news, the anger and xenophobia of white bread conservatives like Pat Buchannan does not seem to be abating. In his latest screed the columnist, MSNBC analyst, and three time far right third party paleoconservative goes on to bemoan the demise of prayer in schools and rail against 1960s radicals who started riots, and struck on campus; (this from a guy who was part of the Nixon administration who sought to efface entire parts of the constitution, recklessly extended the Vietnam war into Cambodia and Laos, overthrew a democratically albeit socialist government in Chile to install one of the 20th century's most despotic mad men, and dragged the office of the president of the United States down to the level of a two bit burglar).

He also goes on with his rhetoric with a zeal that is more George Wallace then George Washington, fulminating that Americas racial, ethnic, religious, and cultural make-up are evolving with age. Pat as always keepin it classy. I would say that this sort of nonsense would be deposited with once his generation dies off to put it bluntly, but much of these racist mindsets were thought to have expired long ago. But Bardwell, Buchannan, and a collection of others who have recently surfaced show that the death of racism has been greatly exaggerated.

This Date in History

LSD Becomes Illegal in the United States in 1966.

This Date in History

James Dean died in a car crash at the age of 25. Ironically in this tv spot done while promoting his then upcoming movie "Rebel With Out a Cause" (1956), he warns about the hazards of the road and that "the life you save could be mine".

John Kyl (R-Arizona) Says Regime Change Should be Ultimate U.S Goal in Iran

This past week Iran was once again in the headlines. A Summer of violence inflicted on dissidents by the military and security forces following the Iranian Presidential "election" in June, as well as fears that the Islamic Republic could soon acquire nuclear weapons; have gained the country much attention and has created much concern.

Last week at the United Nations, the country's "President" faced protests by those denouncing his brutish tactics against Iranian protesters in his own country. His diatribes against Israel and denial of the holocaust caused many to walk out during his speech before the United Nations last week. And intelligence of a subterranean facility connected to the country's nuclear program; elicited rebukes and renewed talk of International sanctions by the United States, the United Kingdom, France, and even Russia to a lesser degree.

Now, as the United States remains mired in two Middle Eastern conflicts in Afghanistan and Iraq (both countries next to Iran), some of the neocons in the United States think maybe two millitary stalemates aren't enough.

It appears that Senator John Kyl (R-AZ) and outgoing Senator Kit Bond (R-MO) are mulling regime change in Iran. Kyl and Bond who each appeared on Sunday morning political talk shows, aren't yet urging an all out Iraq-style pre-emptive war just yet, nevertheless he says regime change should be the ultimate objective of the United States in its policy towards Iran.

"What we're trying to do here eventually is get a regime change," he said Sunday on NBC's "Meet the Press."

"Get a group of people in there that are more representative of the Iranian people, that we really can talk with in a way that might end up with a good result. I think it's very difficult to do that with the current leadership and especially the elected president," Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.

My Pavlovian response to such rhetoric is usually a mix between a roll of the eyes, fear of another military adventure that ends in an outright fiasco, and anger that anyone could be stupid enough to be so cavalier after what we have endured with Iraq. But the so-called election this past Summer (and no Senator Kyl he isn't the "elected President" of Iran he stole the election at least as far as we can tell) shows that there is a reservoir of suspicion and resentment towards Amadinejad that has gone beyond him and was so audacious as to be aimed even at the Mullahs who hold the real power in the country.

Action should be taken for sure, and as of now it appears that Obama is attempting to adopt the approach similar to that George HW Bush took in 1990 following the invasion of Kuwait by Iraq; attempting to build legitimacy with the International community specifically within the UN membership to denounce and punish Iran, rather then the bungled neoconservative model of the Iraq war.

As Josh Marshall on TPM points out, Secretary of Defense Robert Gates even says that any sort of military action towards Iran would have limited results. After attacking any facilities what is to say that Iran won't immediately work to rebuild such capabilities? Would we once again be forced to militarily reconstructing the entire sociopolitical framework of a nation where we are viewed with suspicion and whose culture Americans by and large have little familiarity with? Such a move would further destabilize the global economy, driving further up the price of oil. Not all the weapons sites are likely known in Iran since U.S Intelligence in the country is scant at best if existent at all. It sits in a region where its two neighboring countries Iraq and Afghanistan have unstable, inept regimes that are seen as effective by much of their citizenry and are just possibly fragile enough to also be forced from power in reaction.

The international community would likely not stand alongside the United States and Israel in such an attack, and such talk would only cause Iran to expedite the development of a nuclear program and do something that this summer shows Ahmadinejad and the government were never able to do and that is make him legitimate in the eyes of the Iranian people. His tirades and fear mongering would be validated and any opening the U.S may have had with the Iran citizenry could be very well sealed shut if we are perceived as trigger happy. An attack on Iran could turn more of them against us and in the wake of such an attack we could see a flood of Iranians crossing into Iraq armed with a newly formed hatred in their hearts and thousands of U.S soldiers in their sights.

Finally, the government of Ahmadinejad is not the body that really hold the bulk of the decision making power is done by the mullahs and the Grand Ayatollah. In the larger configuration of things Ahmadinejad is a minute component in the more vast system of the Iranian elite.

If we have learned anything from nearly a decade of struggle and Afghanistan and our invasion of Iraq, its that War and regime change are something that is easy to spout off about, but violent, costly, and painstaking to carry out. We are already locked in two wars rebuilding two nations,to enter a third would be the most absurd and tragic of follies.

Am I the Only One Who Finds it Ironic that a Guy From a Show Called "Growing Pains" is Railing Against the Theory of Evolution?

Nearly a century and a half after the publication of Charles Darwin's 'The Origin of Species', the debate over evolution goes on with no end in sight.

Now former Growing Pains star turned ubber evangelical Christian Kirk Cameron is promoting an effort to give away free copies of the book, but with a 50 page introduction that lays out the creationist theory, as well as allegations that Hitler liked Darwin, Darwin was racist, and hated women. Now the video of one Romanian woman is making the rounds as she rebuts Cameron's claims that American is under assault by atheists.

H/T: Suburban Guerrilla

Life on the Rez

Heart wrenching 2007 report on life on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation in South Dakota.

Happy Adam West Day

Photo: Motortrend

My apologies for the scarcity in posts up. The Autumn college semester began a few weeks ago and between that, my work for the paper, the tussle I have been engaged in with the Massachusetts RMV, and an array of other events, mustering the proper combination of free time and energy has been a bit tough.

This past Saturday I went to Wormtown, the annual stew of awesome jam bands, trippy characters, and sunshine that happens every year in Greenfield and this was my first time going. Sorry to say, I didn't really take any pictures or have cool interview sch wag, but you can get some of that from Angela at buntology, (including cool t-shirts).

Meanwhile well I was jamming out with scores of others; there was another thing few other people knew about. Saturday was the birthday of Adam West. He is best known for his role as Batman/Bruce Wayne in the 1960s cult classic tv program BATMAN. He's also appeared in such movies as the Happy Hooker Goes to Hollywood, Nevada Smith, and Hooper as well as guest staring on a number of other television shows, including doing voice work in Batman the Animated Series, as well as voicing himself as the eccentric Mayor of Quahog on Family Guy.

No doubt though it is his role in the tripped out, mod style Batman television series that aired from 1966-1968 that West will always be associated with. So whether it be as "Batman", himself, or a slew of other off-beat often self deprecating roles, or those feverishly looking for an occasion to celebrate. Happy Belated Birthday Adam West.

Don Hewitt (1922-2009)

Yesterday it was political columnist, conservative, and tv host Robert Novak who died at the age of 78 from the effects of brain cancer.

Today its being reported that a more respected and dare I say pioneering figure Don Hewitt,a producer-director of the CBS Evening newscast in televisions infantacy and who later went on to become the mind and Executive producer behind the tv news weekly magazine 60 Minutes in 1968, until 2004 has died at the age of 86. The generation of sterling pioneering giants in the field of television journalism still alive seems to be sadly growing smaller and smaller.

BoxoJams: Nixon Tickling the Ivories

Why Rottweilers are Cool

If you look at the headlines, caricatures, and the strong physical stature of Rottweilers; they are instantly seen as tough and aggressive. But as this story shows (and I know from personal experience) they can also be some of the most loving and loyal dogs around.

Ed Nixon; the Last to Know?

Ed Nixon, the last surviving brother of former U.S President Richard Nixon, sure found out about his brother's resignation from the Presidency in an awkward way.

This is a statement Ed Nixon made in an interview on C-SPAN, according to Reliable Source (H/T: political wire)

"I didn't really hear anything of this until I came down the mountain from the campsite and stopped in at a barbershop to get some hair cut off my head, and it was the talk of the town."

In case you forgot, Sunday was the 35th anniversary of Nixon's resignation from the Presidency in the wake of the Watergate Scandal.

Here is the famous televised address on the night of August 8, 1974 where Nixon announced he would resign the presidency.

Glenn Beck's truth for clunkers

Additional funds were approved for the 'cash for clunkers' program, where Americans can turn in an old car for a rebate on a new fuel efficent vehicle. Now who could hate that? American consumers support it overwhelmingly, the bussiness community and car dealerships are supported in times of hardship by it, and steps are taken towards the reduction of air pollution. Now who could hate that? Well Fox News self professed 'rodeo clown' Glenn Beck as well as Fox News anchor Kimberly Guilfoyle, and New Deal basher Jonah Goldberg; who sat doing the only thing they seem to know how to do; comparing the present day United States government to Hitler's Nazi Germany.

Beck says that a viewer told him that on the government Cars website, that discloses guidelines and information about cash for clunkers, it is said that as a result of participating in the program your personal computer and its contents are the property of the Fedreal government and they now own your computer. Repeatedly Beck urges people not to go to cars.gov to check for themselves.



A real cracker jack investigative team you got there Beck. This segment was talked about by my grandparents who are ardent Beck watchers this weekend when I visited them and they thought it was true. I myself wondered about it and it sounded far fetched to me so I checked on the site and saw nothing. Then the Daily Kos also debunked Beck's paranoid warnings, stating that the site where the warning appears is not Cars.gov (dispite the logo that says CARS in the corner of the page, but esc.gov. The message is the terms of use on a login page for users on the site and the only users who can log into the site are car dealers, ho have been vetted and are registered participants in the cars for clunkers program, not consumers. Even the conservative site Little Green Footballs acknowledges Beck is off the reservation on this one.

1. If you are a consumer visiting cars.gov (the "cash for clunkers" website) the Federal government cannot take control over your computer, nor will it ask permission to do so.

2. The "Terms of Use" statement to which Beck refers in this clip is not from cars.gov. Rather it is a login page for dealer transactions located at esc.gov.

3. The only people who can get login credentials for the esc.gov site are dealers who have been screened and registered for the "cash for clunkers" program.

4. To summarize: the page in question isn't on cars.gov and can only be used by dealers who have already registered. Consumers won't be impacted by any of this.

But if we included facts rather then absurdities woven together into one big paranoid delusion, Glenn Beck wouldn't have an excuse to compare the President and America to Nazi Germany. Listening to these guys one would think that the worst thing Hitler and the Third Reich did was not the countless invasions and the atrocities of the holocaust, but massive government spending,healthcare, and a cars for clunkers style program.

Lou Dobbs Joins 'Birthers'

Here is a copy of Barack Obama's Birth Certificate.

Ever since the 2008 Democratic Presidential Primaries started in earnest back in 2007 and then Senator Barack Obama (D-Ill) started to gain traction there have been inane conspiracy theories that he hasn't produced a birth certificate and wasn't born in this country, despite the fact you can easily find his birth certificate online. By extension these conspiracy theorists take this erroneous assertion to say that Obama really isn't American or 'one of us' , and that he is really some kind of Al-Queda plant sent here to take over America from inside its government and turn us all into Muslims.

Nobody truly intelligent would go along with this because like I said you can easily find an official copy of his birth certificate online. The rumor would rise again time and time again, throughout the primaries and General election and despite the stupidity, as Albert Camus once said "stupidity has a knack of getting its way", and this vacuous attack has continued to be used, including by wingnut and former Obama senate rival Alan Keyes (R,MD,Ill, or wherever there is a vacant Republican office). Many would expect that from someone like Alan Keyes because, well he's Alan Keyes.

Some members of congress, 'tea baggers' in the Pat Buchanan mold, and other elements of the blogosphere have used this as a way to rail against Obama's policies and Obama himself. However, it also seems to be a way to continue to exploit the stupidity of those ill-developed minds who posses xenophobic, ethnic, and racial hatreds. Really they can't call Obama the n-word, or call for "states rights", and come out and just say we hate blacks; so they use every theory and tool no matter how inaccurate or absurd to hit this message home. They have come to be known as "birthers" and quite frankly they are as ridiculous, absurd, and are the right wing equivalent to those on the far left (and some on the far right) known as "truthers" who claim George W Bush and the U.S government orchestrated 9/11.

Now in a sad commentary on the state of cable news; CNN's Lou Dobbs is raising his pitchfork and joining the party. After all where there is xenophobic ignorance to be exploited, there is Lou Dobbs.

"This isn't one of those things that goes away quite as easily as I'd thought," Dobbs says, saying that this isn't the "fringe" and that Obama hasn't produced a birth certificate. (He long ago released an official copy, the standard document. As often noted, it actually does go away quite easily.)

"I have no idea what the reality is here," says Dobbs, later wondering, "You suppose he's undoc -- no, I wouldn't use the word 'undocumented,' wouldn't be right."

You know Lou if you just used Google I am sure you could find the answers, but i guess research would conflict with the xenophobic barn burning diatribes that are what you do best.

UPDATE (10:10AMET)- Liz Cheney a birther? Well if you believe the Iraq War was an ingenious maneuver in the field of foreign policy I guess you can believe anything. Actually I don't know which this association discredits more the birthers because of their association Liz Cheney, or if Liz Cheney because of her association with the birthers.

A Couple Days Late I know But here is Walter Cronkite's obituary

Walter Cronkite retired just a few years before I was born and though my region of experience in my education as well as my still embryonic career is mostly in print and not broadcast journalism, the shadow of this man and the way he practiced his craft looms large nonetheless.

He was there with his pen guiding the people through World War II, was with America and the world standing almost hand and hand as we stepped into the static infant world of television broadcast news. Through the peril of the Cuban Missile crisis, the heartbreak of the Kennedy assassination, history's anthem of Justice demanded in the Civil rights movement as citizens in masses arose to kill the segregation of Jim Crow and begin to cope with our racial strife. He asked the same questions and eventually came to the conclusion that a war waged half a world away was unwinnable, as the government sought to keep its citizens and soldiers in the dark about the truth. He was there to mourn again with the assassinations of the voice that struck every bigot with terror and every person of love and peace with inspiration Dr Martin Luther King Jr, and months later of Robert Kennedy. He voiced the outrage many felt when Chicago police took part in a riots against protesters outside the Democratic convention in 1968. He stood with us in awe as America (on this date forty years ago) expanded its frontiers beyond the bounds of earth and to the moon. He was there guiding us, as we all felt disgraced and disenchanted by the folly and corruption of the Watergate scandal. In 1976, he was there and with all Americans basked in the glory of America's 200th birthday.

When we were all in a state of anxiety, as the economy teetered on disaster in the 1970s and early 1980s, and when the streets of New York were plunged into darkness by power outages, cast into fear with the 'Son of Sam' killer on the loose in New York City, and when U.S embassy staff in Iran were taken hostage; he was there alongside us counting the days and as always helping navigate a nation and a world through the turbulent seas of history.


RIP Walter Cronkite:

Walter Cronkite, who pioneered and then mastered the role of television news anchorman with such plain-spoken grace that he was called the most trusted man in America, died Friday at his home in New York. He was 92.

The cause was complications of dementia, said Chip Cronkite, his son.

From 1962 to 1981, Mr. Cronkite was a nightly presence in American homes and always a reassuring one, guiding viewers through national triumphs and tragedies alike, from moonwalks to war, in an era when network news was central to many people’s lives.

He became something of a national institution, with an unflappable delivery, a distinctively avuncular voice and a daily benediction: “And that’s the way it is.” He was Uncle Walter to many: respected, liked and listened to. With his trimmed mustache and calm manner, he even bore a resemblance to another trusted American fixture, another Walter — Walt Disney.

IMAGE above: Washington Post

In Memory of Walter Cronkite

Famous coverage of Cronkite announcing the death of President Kennedy on November 22, 1963. RIP 'Uncle Walty'

Peter Griffin and Personal Finances

The world of personal finances according to the Family Guy's Peter Griffin. For example here is Peter Griffin on home loans:

Brian: Peter, did you read the fine print on this loan contract?
Peter: Um, if by “read” you mean imagined a naked lady, then, yes.

Image from Mint.com

This Date in History: July 3

On this date in 1971, The Doors singer Jim Morrison was forever silenced when he died at the age of 27.

Here's a 'Where did this Come From' Post

This is 'Rush Hour' a 1970 British transport film that shows the frenzy around that hour when the work day ends and the streets and tracts of travel are most engulfed in the bustle of activity.

Actor Karl Malden (1912-2009) RIP

Academy Award winning Actor Karl Malden, who is best known for his staring role on the 1970s tv series "The Streets of San Fransisco" as well as movies such as "A Street Car Named Desire", "On the Waterfront", and the role of General Omar Bradley in "Patton" has died.

Karl Malden, a versatile Oscar-winning actor who built a six-decade Hollywood career playing heroes and heavies -- and, often, relatable ordinary men -- yet who was certain he was best known as a commercial pitchman for American Express, has died.

He was 97.

Malden died Wednesday of natural causes at his Brentwood home, said Mila Doerner, a daughter.

He received his Academy Award for playing Mitch in the 1951 film “A Streetcar Named Desire,” a role he originated on Broadway. Two decades later, he starred in the 1970s TV series "The Streets of San Francisco" with Michael Douglas, then in his late 20s.

In a statement to The Times, Douglas called Malden a "mentor" whom he "admired and loved" deeply.

Fourth celebrity to die in less than two weeks.