The real life adventures of former al-Qaida-linked militant Nasir Abas have become a new comic book in Indonesia, chronicling his transformation from foe to invaluable ally in the fight against terrorism.

The story of the soft-spoken, seemingly mild-mannered 42-year-old — recognized by strangers on the streets and even asked for the occasional autograph — is well-known in the world’s most populous Muslim country.

He went from helping train Muslim extremists who carried out some of Southeast Asia’s deadliest attacks, including the 2002 Bali bombings, to informing police about the inner-workings of the Jemaah Islamiyah network.

He’s also joined a government program to convince convicted terrorists that killing unarmed civilians in the name of their faith is wrong.

“I want children to learn from my experience,” Abas said of the colorful 137-page comic “I Found the Meaning of Jihad,” which appears in bookstores Friday and will be handed out at some schools and libraries.

“I don’t want them to make the same mistakes.”

Full story here.

So there’s a really weird debate going on in Illinois, and it’s kinda complicated for dopes like me – so bear with my primitive explanation.

In that state, two agencies are battling over whether the names of registered gun owners should be made public.

The issue had come up after the Associated Press made a Freedom of Information Act request, asking for the names of all the armed citizens who live there.

State police said no. They said making that info public is an invasion of privacy, and would put the lives of gun owners in jeopardy.

But the Attorney General’s office disagreed, and rejected keeping the information private.

You with me? Good.

Right now, the debate’s still debatin’, and it’s bogged down in judicial hoohaw that I can barely understand. Plus, it bores me.

But here’s my take on it.

First: I question the AP’s motives in making gun owner’s names public. Sorry – I just don’t believe they’re doing it because they really dig gun owners and hope complete strangers will send them gift baskets.

My guess is, this is just another way to harass people who believe a safe society is an armed one.

But here’s where the AP’s quest, and the Attorney General’s support of it, becomes dangerous. Making the names of gun owners public won’t put the gun owners at risk, as much as it will the non-gun owners.

Consider the robber who’s contemplating a handful of targets. If public records reveal who owns a gun, then the criminal is likely to target those who aren’t on that list. After all, he doesn’t want to work too hard for his booty. Or die.

So by going after the privacy of gun owners, the AP might actually paint a fat target on everyone else’s back.

The end result? More people will buy guns to protect themselves from criminals who actually do their research.

Somehow I don’t think that is what the AP was hoping for.

And if you disagree with me, you’re worse than Charlie Sheen.

ANOTHER DYNAMITE SHOW, COMING YOUR WAY!

Andrew WK!

Joe DeRosa!

Diane Macedo!

fun, fun fun!

Neal’s most famous love affair was with Gary Cooper during the filming of the “The Fountainhead” in 1949. She was 20, he was 45 and married. After Cooper’s wife found out the affair ended but Neal discovered she was pregnant. Worried about the effect such a thing would have on her burgeoning career (especially after “Fountainhead” flopped) and with the urging of Cooper, Neal aborted the unborn child. In her autobiography, Neal makes no secret of the fact that this abortion was the great regret of her life. For the next thirty years she cried herself to sleep over it and wrote:

“If I had only one thing to do over in my life, I would have that baby.”

Later in life, Neal returned to the Catholic faith and became a strong pro-life advocate. 

While her best role is probably the one for which she won the Oscar in 1963, as Alma, the mature and very sexy housekeeper in “Hud” who represents the redemption Paul Newman’s alienated character just can’t bring himself to accept, I’d also recommend “Operation Pacific” (1951) and “In Harm’s Way” (1965). In both she co-stars with John Wayne and proves to be one of those rare leading ladies capable of projecting as much strength as he did. Neither is a classic, but the star chemistry alone makes them worthwhile.

One truly under-rated classic of hers, however, is 1949’s “The Hasty Heart,” with Ronald Reagan and Oscar-nominee Richard Todd. Set in 1945 in the days just after the end of the war, Neal plays Sister Parker, the head nurse in charge of a Burma field hospital with one patient (Todd) who doesn’t know he won’t be going home. Todd’s performance is unforgettably moving but Neal is heart at the center of it all.

Thanks to a husky voice and an unconventional beauty that projected sex and intelligence in equal parts, Neal stood out in a Hollywood that was then crowded with future immortals. No small thing. Great star. Great actress. Classy lady. 

Today’s Associated Press:

Patricia Neal, the willowy, husky-voiced actress who won an Academy Award for 1963’s “Hud” and then survived several strokes to continue acting, died on Sunday. She was 84.

Neal had lung cancer and died surrounded by her family at her home in Edgartown, Mass., on Martha’s Vineyard.

“She faced her final illness as she had all of the many trials she endured: with indomitable grace, good humor and a great deal of her self-described stubbornness,” her family said in a statement.

Neal was already an award-winning Broadway actress when she won her Oscar for her role as a housekeeper to the Texas father (Melvyn Douglas) battling his selfish, amoral son (Paul Newman).

Less than two years later, she suffered a series of strokes in 1965 at age 39. Her struggle to once again walk and talk is regarded as epic in the annals of stroke rehabilitation. She returned to the screen to earn another Oscar nomination and three Emmy nominations.

The Patricia Neal Rehabilitation Center that helps people recover from strokes and spinal cord and brain injuries is named for her in Knoxville, where she grew up.

Read the full article here.

The government has now confirmed what has always been clear:  No one tried to wiretap or bug Senator Landrieu’s office.  Nor did we try to cut or shut down her phone lines.  Reports to this effect over the past 48 hours are inaccurate and false.

As an investigative journalist, my goal is to expose corruption and lack of concern for citizens by government and other institutions, as I did last year when our investigations revealed the massive corruption and fraud perpetrated by ACORN.  For decades, investigative journalists have used a variety of tactics to try to dig out and reveal the truth.

I learned from a number of sources that many of Senator Landrieu’s constituents were having trouble getting through to her office to tell her that they didn’t want her taking millions of federal dollars in exchange for her vote on the healthcare bill.  When asked about this, Senator Landrieu’s explanation was that, “Our lines have been jammed for weeks.”  I decided to investigate why a representative of the people would be out of touch with her constituents for “weeks” because her phones were broken.  In investigating this matter, we decided to visit Senator Landrieu’s district office – the people’s office – to ask the staff if their phones were working.

On reflection, I could have used a different approach to this investigation, particularly given the sensitivities that people understandably have about security in a federal building.  The sole intent of our investigation was to determine whether or not Senator Landrieu was purposely trying to avoid constituents who were calling to register their views to her as their Senator.  We video taped the entire visit, the government has those tapes, and I’m eager for them to be released because they refute the false claims being repeated by much of the mainstream media.

It has been amazing to witness the journalistic malpractice committed by many of the organizations covering this story.  MSNBC falsely claimed that I violated a non-existent “gag order.”  The Associated Press incorrectly reported that I “broke in” to an office which is open to the public.  The Washington Post has now had to print corrections in two stories on me.  And these are just a few examples of inaccurate and false reporting.  The public will judge whether reporters who can’t get their facts straight have the credibility to question my integrity as a journalist.

In a strange twist to an already complicated legal situation, artist Shepard Fairey admitted today to legal wrongdoing in his ongoing battle with the Associated Press.

Fairey said in a statement issued late Friday that he knowingly submitted false images and deleted others in the legal proceedings, in an attempt to conceal the fact that the AP had correctly identified the photo that Fairey had used as a reference for his “Hope” poster of then-Sen. Barack Obama.

“Throughout the case, there has been a question as to which Mannie Garcia photo I used as a reference to design the HOPE image,” Fairey said. “The AP claimed it was one photo, and I claimed it was another.”

New filings to the court, he said, “state for the record that the AP is correct about which photo I used…and that I was mistaken. While I initially believed that the photo I referenced was a different one, I discovered early on in the case that I was wrong. In an attempt to conceal my mistake I submitted false images and deleted other images.”

The complete must-read article here.

Andrew Sullivan (left) and Conor Friedersdorf

In the piece you link to and affirm in the Daily Beast, “The Right’s Lesser Press,” Conor Friedersdorf refuses to interview me as he continues to be my unofficial biographer. (I’m VERY reachable, Conor.) He writes opinion pieces on me purporting to be journalism. He doesn’t quote or cite me, he simply assumes and pushes the point of view he thinks I have and makes an argument based on these alleged positions. It’s sloppy and you, of all people, should know better.

Breitbart.com is MOSTLY a news aggregator. It carries the Associated Press, Reuters, even, Agence France Presse, from those dreaded croissant eaters!!!

It even carries the New York Times on its front page — a benefit that even Big Government and Big Hollywood don’t receive.

Big Hollywood is what it is: a counter-voice to the virtually monolithic Hollywood left. How dare I grant a platform, and a means for the defense of those in Hollywood who would dare go against the strident and intolerant Hollywood left.

Big Government, too, is providing an outlet for voices and ideas that are not proportionally represented in the traditional and mostly biased mainstream media.

(more…)

During Obama’s 400th speech defending his plans to reform healthcare the president responded to charges that the proposals before congress would provide healthcare for illegal immigrants. The President called the charges false whereupon Wilson forgot his home training (or lost his mind) and called the President a liar.

As it happens, similar words were falling from my own lips at that very same moment. I think most people recognize that a private citizen calling the President a liar in the privacy of their living rooms is rather a different animal from elected officials doing so during a Presidential address. I would also like to believe that most thinking people recognize that boorish is not the same thing as racist.

Lest I get mail accusing me of believing that racism does not exist let me say in no uncertain terms that racism still exists in America. I have no doubt that there are people in this country that can little articulate their dislike for this president beyond the fact that he is black. Similarly, there are many that forgive his failings for the same reason. Yes, race in America is alive and well. (And based on the recent behavior of Kanye West and my sweet darling Serena Williams–so is boorishness. But I digress.)

To hold, as many on the new left do, that the “overwhelming portion of” opposition to this President is based on race is to engage in an egregious act of Venetian hearing; it is to turn ones back to the very legitimate concerns of voters and taxpayers. It is a contrivance that allows the current party in power to dismiss the honest and passionate voices of opposition.

Consider first that Wilson’s assertion was correct: the president was not being entirely truthful.

The administration points to section 246 of the current house bill, which excludes illegal immigrants from receiving “affordability credits” or vouchers with which to purchase health insurance. There is of course no enforcement mechanism in the bill to prevent those in this country illegally from receiving the credits. Democrats have voted down amendments adding such mechanisms.

There is also this quote from a recent report by the Associated Press on the current bill emerging from the Senate Finance committee: “The White House says that Obama does not want illegal immigrants to be able to buy insurance through the new purchasing exchange as they would be allowed to do under Democratic legislation in the House.” Word that illegal immigrants would not be covered under the House plan has apparently not trickled down to the senate finance committee, the Associated Press or Barack H. Obama.

Consider next that eight months into this administration President Obama has quadrupled the national debt, attempted to institute unprecedented control of banking institutions, taken over a major auto manufacturer and is now attempting to force on an unwilling populace a government run health care system. It is just possible that opposition to the President’s policies are based on principled political disagreements and not race.

I am only surprised that it took the left the better part of a year before they began to play the race game in earnest. The new left suffers from schizophrenia as it pertains to race. They claim to want to move past race in this country, but are reluctant to do so. Race provides them with a sense of security; they believe that through race they are able to keep their emotional and moral equilibrium. And because the left is emotionally tied to race it is a potent political weapon the use of which power seekers and power keepers will not soon relinquish.

In this episode, “NewsBusted” covers: 9/11 Terrorist Attacks, Bush, Cheney, President Obama, Green Czar Van Jones, Obama Speech to School Children, GM, Chrysler, California Wildfires, Congressman Joe Wilson, Obama’s Health Care Speech, Associated Press, Katherine Heigl, Margaret Cho, and Charlie Sheen.

As the Associated Press reported, “The live telecast on the CW went off the air just as the cast and crew was assembling on the stage to accept its trophy.” In addition to the longevity of the show, the article noted the familial nature of the show’s production. The article noted, “It was a poignant victory for executive producer Bradley Bell, whose late father William J. Bell co-created ‘The Young and the Restless,” a show that was honored seven times in the same category.”

This award was a major victory for the show but one overshadowed by time constraints. When long victory speeches run over it’s frequently inevitable that music begins to play to cut off that person. However, the people who represented B&B on stage regretfully did not even have a chance to address the television audience and thank them for their support.

Now, for much of their history, daytime dramas have been ridiculed by some critics for their weaknesses. Many people criticize the acting of daytime drama actors while others mock the shows for over-the-top plot-lines.  Neither of these weaknesses for some daytime dramas is enough to minimize the victory of a television show being named the best in its field at the climax of the Daytime Emmy Awards. Despite their flaws, millions of Americans watch daytime dramas every day and these shows have boosted the careers of some fine actors including  Julianne Moore and Meg Ryan, and these shows continue to provide entertainment for a wide and eclectic audience.

As I noted at the beginning of this piece, twenty–two years is a long time for a show to be on the air and “The Bold and the Beautiful” seems to have only gotten started. Although daytime dramas can be over the top, I think a show that is named the best in its field after twenty-two years on the air deserves a moment in the limelight.

For that, I say to the actors and producers, the directors and the writers, and the rest of the people who have worked on the show, congratulations.