So we were listening to Howard Stern this morning — yes we admit it, we like him — when guest, Kevin Bacon, began to plug his new movie, Where the Truth Lies. Turns out the MPAA thought it was too sexy for an R rating, so they assigned it a much-maligned NC-17. Bacon appealed and ended up going with an Unrated instead of an NC-17. What disturbed us was his account of meeting with the MPAA where two clergy were present to discuss his appeal. Since when is the church directly involved with rating movies? Additionally troubling, acording to Bacon, The Today Show cancelled his appearance because of the MPAA decision. None of the other morning shows will talk to him either, according to his account. We have no idea if the movie (whose screenplay is written by Atom Egoyan) will be any good, but here’s our review: GO SEE IT. If only to give a big fuck you to the MPAA and Today.

Evidently, James Dobson devoted a large chunk of time on Tuesday’s radio broadcast to reassuring his audience that Miers was on Jesus’ team:

From Dailykos:
“I can’t reveal it all, because I do know things that I’m privy to that I can’t describe, because of confidentiality.” He then states that Miers “is a deeply committed Christian” and that people who know her have all told him that “she will not be a disappointment.” ….
“If I have made a mistake here … the blood of those babies that will die will be on my hands, to some degree. And that’s why is has weighed so heavily on me”

He then went on to confirm that GOP Senators had been calling him to find out what he knows, stating that he was privy to inside knowledge from the White House and Karl Rove:

“I’m getting calls from members of Congress saying ‘tell us your take on this, we’re not sure what we think of Harriet Miers.’” He then admitted “It was leaked to the media that I’ve had conversations with Karl Rove and the White House, which is true.”

Is it just us, or is the fact that some hack religious leader in Colorado has more access to the White House than Congress and the media? George Bush hates Democracy.

Bush on his lack of support among African Americans.

“I was disappointed, frankly, in the vote I got in the African American community.” [article here]

This ranks among the most comical statements of his career. Get a clue, Dubya. Maybe repealing your tax cuts on the wealthy would have helped. Or rethinking the inept No White Child Left Behind initiative. Or ending your vacation in the wake of Katrina. Or how about having your mom apologize for this statement:

“And so many of the people in the arena here, you know, were underprivileged anyway, so this is working very well for them.”

[Cracker]

Our boy Wesley Clark (he was our pick in the 2004 primary) bitchslaps O’Reilly about Abu Ghraib on the “no spin zone.” Definitely worth checking out.

James Dobson’s enthusiasm scares us. From Focus on the Family Action, the political arm of Focus on the Family:

“We welcome the president’s nomination of Harriet Miers to the U.S. Supreme Court. He pledged emphatically during his campaign to appoint judges who will interpret the law rather than create it. He also promised to select competent judges who will ‘not use the bench to write social policy.’ To this point, President Bush’s appointments to the federal bench appear to have been remarkably consistent with that stated philosophy. Based on the information known generally about Harriet Miers, and President Bush’s personal knowledge of her, we believe that she will not prove to be a lone exception.”

There’s no way in hell Dobson would have issued this statement unless he was privy to inside knowlege about Miers. After all, we’re talking about a man who routinely threatens politicians on Capital Hill who interfere with his Jesus-filled agenda.

It couldn’t happen to a nicer guy. Thanks to Catch for the tip.

(From Fort Worth Star Telegram)
AUSTIN – A Texas grand jury on Monday indicted U.S. Rep. Tom DeLay on a new charge of money laundering.
A different grand jury whose term ended last week indicted him on a conspiracy charge, forcing DeLay to temporarily step down as House majority leader.
Both indictments accuse DeLay and two political associates of conspiring to get around a state ban on corporate campaign contributions by funneling the money through the DeLay-founded Texans for a Republican Majority Political Action Committee to the Republican National Committee in Washington. The RNC then sent back like amounts to distribute to Texas candidates in 2002, the indictment alleges.

Sufjan Stevens (Acoustic) / Adam Green / Akron/Family / Grizzly Bear / Other Passengers / plus special guests
Click here for tickets

Bush Packer: It’s the noun form of Bush Packing. It’s a catch-all term that simply means a spineless, unethical, dickhead

Bush Packer is a more adult term than fudge-packer,
More cogent than douchebag
More politically correct that pig fucker
In short, we love the term Bush Packer.

The New York Times had no mention whatsoever yesterday of Judith Miller. We looked in the front section. Nothing. We looked in the Week in Review. Still nothing. The incarceration of Miller was one of journalism’s darkest days in recent history, yet the paper of record is too cowardly to go on record with the story. As Arianna Huffington reminds us, Time gave us the full story after Matt Cooper came clean. The Times owes us the same disclosure since so many questions remain unanswered. Their silence is nothing short of journalistic cowardice. Miller, after all, is their own reporter. They have access.

Important Questions [From Huffingtion Post]:
What made her refuse Libby’s waiver when it was first offered but accept it now? (Especially since Judge Hogan had told Miller that “she was mistaken in her belief that she was defending a free press, stressing that the government source she ‘alleges she is protecting’ had already released her from her promise of confidentiality.”)
Was Miller’s sudden eagerness to find a get-out-of-jail excuse prompted by Fitzgerald’s planning to ask for an extension of the grand jury?
Or was it prompted by Fitzgerald’s gearing up to charge her with criminal contempt?
If all it took for Miller to feel properly released was a phone call, why did she wait 85 days to make it?
And so we don’t forget what this story is really about, and given that the aluminum tubes crap that Miller put on the front page of the New York Times was being heavily promoted by Cheney, how much of that bogus information came to Miller via Libby?
And here are a few questions for the Times:
Had a Plame/Wilson story been assigned to Miller or not?
What, if anything, did she say about the story to anyone at the paper at the time… and what did they say back?
Why did the Times hold back the story about Miller’s release and let multiple other news sources scoop them? Were they trying to miss the evening news cycle and avoid the overnight thrashing their spin has rightly received?
So, as the image of Judy as a principled, conscience-driven defender of the First Amendment gives way to the image of Judy wearing her “new” waiver as a fig leaf allowing her to get out and sing, the big question remains: What is she hiding?

This weekend is your last chance to see Agora:
Ever wondered what it looked like inside the McCarren Park pool in Williamsburg? Now’s your chance to find out. Check out Agora while the weather is still nice:

In celebration of the historic McCarren Park pool site, a 50,000 square foot empty pool in Williamsburg, Noémie Lafrance is creating a site-specific dance performance that invites the community to re-experience a moment in movement of this monumental public space. Agora is a site-specific dance performance inspired by the McCarren pool site and performed by 30 dancers to a multi-channel score with theatrical lighting transforming the 50, 000 square foot pool into a vast staging area. Performed inside the large pool, the overlapping narratives of Agora will produce the illusion of travel through the different layers of visceral urban experiences and explore the phenomenon of agoraphobia as a social and physical reaction to urban architecture.

Click here for more info about Agora.

Belle and Sebastian at Keyspan

And on Saturday Oct 1 and Sunday Oct 2
Across the Narrows:
SATURDAY, OCTOBER 1 -
Keyspan Park, Coney Island show featuring: Pixies, Gang of Four, Built to Spill, Rilo Kiley, Death From Above 1979, Mando Diao, Nine Black Alps
Richmond Park, Staten Island show featuring: The Killers, New York Dolls, Interpol, British Sea Power, Tegan and Sara, The Ordinary Boys, Lake Trout
SUNDAY, OCTOBER 2
Keyspan Park, Coney Island show featuring: Beck, Belle & Sebastian, The Polyphonic Spree, The Raveonettes, Gang Gang Dance, Whirlwind Heat, Dragonette, McCrorie
Richmond Park, Staten Island show featuring: Oasis, Jet, Doves, The Lemonheads, Kasabian, Jesse Malin, The Redwalls