Not content with achieving Father of the Year Emeritus status for his unique, outside-the-box parenting skills, Alec Baldwin spent yesterday evening on Twitter to once again offer his nuanced, carefully researched insights into a variety of important topics.  In doing so, he offered a powerful challenge to such innovators as Oliver Stone, Sean Penn and even Hanoi Jane for the coveted title of “Hollywood’s Biggest Idiot.”

In the past, I’ve even taken to these pages to defend Alec as a performer.  But as amusing as he is on screen, the fact is that he is a moral illiterate who refuses to let his manifest ignorance hinder his desire to have himself taken seriously as something more than an actor. 

Alec wants to be just like Ronald Reagan, except he’s handicapped by some challenges the Gipper didn’t face – like being a leftist, a jerk and a fool.

The bloviating buffoon apparently got agitated because Georgia decided to execute a cop killer who had spent 22 years failing to convince any jury or judge that the overwhelming evidence against him was inadequate.  Ironically, the police officer Troy Davis finished off with a bullet to the head was an Army veteran – and judging from Alec’s attitude toward our warriors as manifested in his subsequent tweets, he probably thought that fact supported sparing the killer of Officer Mark MacPhail, Sr.

Here’s a selection of some of his inane tweets from his Twitter timeline.  Let’s see who fails to live up to Alec’s exacting standards!

Well, Michelle Malkin certainly does:

C’mon!! Let’s go all Town Hall on that supreme thinker @michellemalkin. A world class, crypto fascist hater!

Davis is dead Does that make you happier, @michellemalkin?

@macandroo @michellemalkin @michellemalkin… Like Palin, but even mire (sic) of a hater.

The ferocious Malkin doesn’t need any help defending herself from this hack’s semi-coherent ranting – though I did jump in through my Twitter account (feel free to review and follow) during the skirmishing to assist by kicking the trembling, twitching carcass Malkin had left behind. 

On the plus side, Malkin can now say she knows what it’s like to be treated like a movie star.  Unfortunately, that star is Kim Bassinger.

Alec doesn’t limit himself to new outrages either – he spices things up with some classics.  For example, he’s one guy who won’t let us forget the nightmare of the Bu$HitlerCheneyHaliburton regime no matter how many years President Obama has been in office:

When do Cheney and Rumsfeld go on trial for murder? Will that trial be in Texas? Georgia?

That’s a great question!  Their crimes include waging war in Iraq, waging war in Afghanistan, keeping Guantanamo open, and other wars in Somalia, Yemen and Libya!  Oh, wait….

Proving himself totally immune to irony, he also tweeted:

Obama….2012

But it’s not just a few Americans who don’t measure up to Alec’s standards – it’s all of us!

Troy Davis is still dead. The gulf is still contaminated. Fukushima is still radioactive. #wecraveignorancesowecanshoplikeamericans

Wait, I thought that a new day dawned in January 2009 where America was respected and loved again?

US death penalty humiliates us in the eyes of much of the world

Alec leaves unsaid the obvious question – who gives half a damn what the motley collection of corrupt, genocidal losers who make up much of the world think?

And Alec reserved special contempt for our troops:

Right-wingers always hide the shameful policies of their nutbag policies behind “supporting the troops.”

Gee, to the extent that I can decipher what it means to “hide the shameful policies of their nutbag policies,” from my vantage point as someone who did more than play one of the troops, I think right-wingers have been pretty damn supportive.  But why should Alec just limit himself to yapping about things he knows anything about – he must allow his mind to run free so he can provide us with the full benefit of his ignorance!

Then there are these gems:

..soldiers are doing their sacred duty at the direction of maniacs like Cheney. We struggle the longer you won’t face that.

You can support the troops and still face the fact that Cheney and Rumsfeld betrayed their country.

Interesting.  So, by carrying out Cheney and Rumsfeld’s nefarious plots, the troops therefore also “betrayed their country,” right?  Or are the troops too dumb to know what they are doing and therefore get a pass?  Alec, I need to know – are our troops morally bankrupt or just stupid?

—–

Hey, are the ones still fighting in Iraq and Afghanistan still betraying their county, or did that change at some point?  Alec, I must have your moral guidance!  I mean, when I need a moral leader with an unerring sense of right and wrong, my first instinct is to seek out the guidance of a Hollywood star like you. 

That, or consult Chet, my talking unicorn.

Well, apparently our generation’s greatest moral referee has come to his conclusion:

Wonder if the McPhail family will seek death penalty for US leaders who killed thousands of US soldiers and countless innocent Iraqis

Wow.  Bravo, Alec – you’ve managed to simultaneously label our troops killers of “countless innocent Iraqis” while also trashing the murdered cop’s family, all in just 140 characters!   Yeah, I suspect the MacPhail family would have happily stayed out of the limelight, except the murderer you coddled kind of drew them into it by finishing off their husband and father by shooting him in the head

Oh, here’s my personal favorite of his Deep Thoughts:

@admiralwaugh US soldiers r brave n true. Their leadership is, by n large, borderline sociopathic. If u don’t have guts to face that……

Well, Alec, save your public “US soldiers r brave n true” line for the rubes.  At least have the guts to go full-troop hater.  You know you want to.

But you try to evade having to take a position that even your stunted moral sense tells you will expose you to the unbridled contempt of every decent American.  You hedge.  You embrace the classic troop-hater dodge of only despising (at least in public) the troops’ “leadership.”

You punk. I’ve been part of that leadership you slander in war and peace.  The leaders of our military, from the newest corporal to the highest general, day and night struggle to accomplish their missions while taking care of their troops.  They spend years away from home.  Many of them get hurt; some get killed.  But they “have the guts to face” America’s enemies and they don’t back down.

On the other hand, you call little girls “pigs” over the telephone.

Alec, you are unworthy of further discussion.  You’re not a thinker, you’re not scholar, and you’re not a man.  You’re a privileged clown without the common sense or the common decency to shut your pie hole about better men and women than you’ll ever be. 

You are nothing.  You are dismissed.  Get out.

Too Big to Fail, which premieres on HBO on May 23, 2011, features a star studded cast recounting the events that led to the financial crisis and bailouts by the U.S. government in 2008. It is a mini-series packed into a 98-minute made-for-television movie where several essential characters are quickly introduced and where finance and economics are casually discussed. It may help if one has a baseline of knowledge about the crisis before watching the movie. If one doesn’t know who Henry Paulson, Ben Bernanke, and Timothy Geithner are or what Lehman Brothers, Goldman Sachs, and AIG are, it may prove slightly difficult to follow.

Although the Director, Curtis Hanson (L.A. Confidential, 8 Mile), was limited to telling a very long and complicated story in a very short amount of time, he was able to skillfully pull it off. Perhaps this is because the screenwriter, Peter Gould (Breaking Bad), deftly adapted Andrew Ross Sorkin’s 2009 prize winning New York Times Bestseller, Too Big to Fail.

The cast was right out of a Robert Altman film, there was a large number of well known actors including William Hurt (Paulson – Sec. Treasury), James Woods (Fuld – Lehman Bros), Paul Giamatti (Bernanke – Chair, Federal Reserve), Bill Pullman (Dimon – JPMorgan Chase), Ed Asner (Buffet – Berkshire Hathaway), Billy Crudup (Geithner – President, Federal Reserve), Matthew Modine (Thain – CIT Group), Tony Shalhoub (Mack – Morgan Stanley), Topher Grace (Wilkinson), Cynthia Nixon (Davis), and many others. They all looked and played their parts very well with the exception that there seemed to be no effort made toward sounding like the people they played. It was difficult to get past the notable voices of the actors. Paul Giamatti sounds like Paul Giamatti and nothing like Ben Bernanke. Hurt sounded nothing like Paulson. Crudup nothing like Geithner. Perfection wasn’t necessary, but it seemed as though there was little to no effort made at all by the actors to at least sound a little more like the real people they were portraying and less like themselves.

The story opens on a  shot of Ronald Reagan. It is news footage of a speech he gives on deregulation. Credits play as we see an image of Clinton signing a piece of legislation as the audio of newsmakers make mention that this is Congress’ bill being singed. Alan Greenspan is seen and states, “Don’t regulate for regulation’s sake,” which is followed by Bush proclaiming everyone should live out the American dream and own their own home. Miscellaneous clips talks of high profits and subprime loans, and then mortgage meltdown and government bailout.

At this point, I am thinking this film is going to be about blame… and that blame is going to be deregulation ushered in by Reagan, the Republican Congress during the Clinton years, Bush 43, and Reagan through Bush’s Federal Reserve appointee, Alan Greenspan.

This prompts me to check the cast and crew to see who they support and if they are bringing their agenda to this story in their hopes to rewrite history and put Republicans in a negative light and Democrats in a positive light before the election in 2012. And, of course, the Director and the Writer are both ardent Obama supporters. All those at HBO support Obama like Co-President Eric Kessler, Co-President Richard Plepler, President of HBO entertainment Sue Naegle, President of HBO Films Len Amato and Executive Producers Paula Weinstein, Carol Fenelon, and Ezra Swerdlow. Even the Cinematographer Kramer Morgenthau and Casting Director Alexa Fogel have contributed to Obama’s 2008 campaign. And the Obama supporting list of actors is long too: Topher Grace, William Hurt, Matthew Modine, Cynthia Nixon, and Amy Carlson. As if that’s not enough, there are many other ardent left-wingers like Paul Giamatti, Bill Pullman, Tony Shalhoub, and Ed Asner.

Then the story opens on James Woods playing Dick Fuld, Chairman and CEO of Lehman Brothers… an ardent Democrat and Obama supporter. James Woods stands out as the political maverick in the cast. In a recent interview with New York Magazine, Woods is quoted as saying, “I’ve always said that the next Obama slogan should be, ‘Barack Obama: Putting America Out of Business,’ because that’s what he’s doing.” So I decided to turn off my bias filter and give this story a chance.

As the story unfolded, I saw that the villains in this film weren’t the Republicans, rather it was a single villain… the total and complete financial collapse of our nation, or as Bernanke puts it, “[replaying] the depression of the 1930s. Only this time… far, far worse.” So, regardless of any one American’s political affiliation watching this film, total and complete financial collapse is an enemy we can all collectively desire to defeat.

The heroes, however, that’s a little more complicated. The actual heroes of the story are Republicans Henry Paulson (Secretary of the Treasury), Ben Bernanke (Chairman of the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve), and Independent Timothy Geithner (President of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York). They artfully maneuver their way through the minefield of economic collapse. Bear Stearns has already collapsed, Lehman Brothers is on the brink, Merrill Lynch next, and with all this going on, AIG – the safety net for all these creditors – was in the process of imploding from its own lack of liquidity and inability to meet its obligations. If AIG falls, all the banks fall. People would pull their money out of their banks and there would be no George Bailey (Jimmy Stewart) trying to stop the “run on the bank” by convincing his depositors to take only what they need from his honeymoon stash. America, as we know it, would be in ruins.

Every maneuver in their quest to stabilize the markets is met with unpredictable reactions. Once they believe they’ve averted disaster, the pundits, investors, and citizens react differently than expected. It’s a reminder of Nobel winning economist F.A. Hayek’s precept that, “The curious task of economics is to demonstrate to men how little they really know about what they imagine they can design.”

But in the end, as we all know, it was capital injections in the form of a Troubled Asset Relied Plan (TARP) that would “save the day.” In short, the plan would see the U.S. government purchase assets and equity from all financial institutions, even if they didn’t need it, in order to stabilize and strengthen the financial sector. As Bernanke put it, the upside would be stabilizing banks faster, the downside would be nationalizing a few banks. Their plan to soften the blow was that they would force private banks to participate in this plan under law, but that the government would not have a voting interest or the ability to tell the banks how they use the money injected into their coffers… leaving the question to the viewer, “They will lend it out, won’t they?”

But, was TARP the right solution? If one believes it was, then the heroes of this story are without a doubt Republicans Paulson and Bernanke. But, if one believes it wasn’t the right solution, then the Republicans are just kicking the can down the road. Regardless, the story is a quest for a private solution, according to Paulson.

As Republican public relations guru Jim Wilkson (Topher Grace) says at one point, “You just can’t hand the banks massive piles of cash. Nobody’s going to go for it. To the Republicans, it’s nationalization. To the Democrats, it’s a bailout. And the banks are going to go ballistic.”

The story is well crafted and builds suspense out of the unexciting topics of finance and economics. There were parts that bothered me, like making the Republican Chairman of the Securities and Exchange Commission, Christopher Cox, look like an immature boob, or Republican presidential candidate Senator McCain look like he is clueless on economic matters contrasted by Senator Obama’s grip on the subject, or simplistically blaming deregulation while omitting the fault of Carter’s Community Reinvestment Act of 1977, or that derivatives and subprime loans were born during Clinton’s presidency, or more importantly that in 2006 Republicans pleaded with the Democratically-controlled Congress to begin taking measures by pulling the reigns back on Fannie and Freddie to mitigate the impending economic disaster.

Those criticisms, however, were offset by so many of the lines delivered by Topher Grace’s character, Jim Wilkson, who best resembled the attitudes and feelings of most Americans during this time. At one point, it is suggested that the government purchases up the toxic assets of the banks, to which he responds, “Ohhh, call it cash for trash,” he also calls nationalization “the N-word” and that it is un-American, and he suggests that the government running the banks would be like the government running the Post Office, which they “run like a dream.” Another character addresses the issue that the government having the ability to dictate compensation would be the biggest “brain drain this country has ever seen.” And House Speaker Nancy Pelosi is characterized as something like the head of the Mafia. Her character comes across as an elitist snob, which I particularly enjoyed.

The movie was a surprise. Although it wasn’t 100 percent balanced, it was enough for this right-winger to actually enjoy it. And the filmmakers did a pretty decent job packing in a lot of characters and a lot of story into a short amount of time. If Obama-loving HBO can pull off the upcoming Sarah Palin story, Game Change, and the Dick Cheney movie, Angler, with the same deftness and fairness, I will be pleasantly surprised.  Better yet… I will be astonished.

Via Jim Treacher, Stephen Colbert in April of 2009:

—–

But, but, but, now I’m confused. Last night, Stephen Colbert wildly and without any detectable irony celebrated the results of that same secret, lawless assassination squad that was also using intelligence achieved through “enhanced” interrogations at Gitmo. Oh, wait…

Maybe Colbert is practicing some sort of super secret kind of hipterism where you show no irony at all to increase the power of irony in order to make a devastating political point that… Secret, lawless assassination squads using intelligence achieved through enhanced interrogations at Gitmo are wrong even when they boost a Democrat President’s sagging polls!

That must be it. What else could it be? Did Colbert think we wouldn’t find the 2009 video? No one’s that insulated, are they?

So see if you can detect Colbert’s super secret message below. I couldn’t, but I’m no hipster:

—–

While I root around old Jon Stewart videos, read some Human Events:

Catherine Herridge of Fox News reports that “Years of intelligence gathering, including details gleaned from controversial interrogations of Al Qaeda members during the Bush administration, ultimately led the Navy SEALs who killed Osama bin Laden to his compound in Pakistan.”  U.S. intelligence first learned of the “trusted courier” who led us to bin Laden in 2003.  Guantanamo Bay inmates provided key information under the influence of both regular and “enhanced” interrogation. 

One of those inmates was the Left’s favorite al-Qaeda commander, Saint Khalid of the Wet Towel.  Until last month, the Obama Administration wanted to extend the full panoply of American civil rights to this creature, and give him a civilian trial in New York.  That would have prevented any meaningful form of “interrogation” at all.  Criminal defendants can be questioned, but that’s very different from even the milder forms of CIA interrogation. …

 If Barack Obama, Eric Holder, Seymour Hersh, and Stephen Colbert had gotten their way over the last ten years, Osama bin Laden would still be alive.  The intelligence leading to his location would not have been fully developed.  The commando team that took him down would not have existed.

Did these liberals hold their views entirely out of political expediency, slamming and indicting Bush and Cheney for programs and policies they would have quietly tolerated from Gore or Kerry?  What difference does it make?  They were dead wrong, and it doesn’t matter why.  They’ll be dead wrong again under the next Republican president.

More here.

With a movie based on the gossipy, mostly unsourced, pro-Obama, Palin- savaging “Game Change” already casting and likely timed to boost President Barack –War of Choice! — Obama’s re-election bid in 2012, it looks as though HBO’s decided to double down with a miniseries written by a “West Wing” alum that’s based in part on the PBS (your tax dollars used against you again) Frontline documentary, “The Dark Side.”:

HBO has optioned the book Angler: The Cheney Vice Presidency by Pulitzer-Prize winning journalist Barton Gellman for a miniseries to be executive produced by Paula Weinstein.

The mini, which will be based on the bestselling book and the Frontline documentary The Dark Side, tells the story of Richard Bruce Cheney from his early days as Donald Rumsfeld’s protégé in the Nixon administration, to the nation’s youngest Chief of Staff under President Ford, to serving as Secretary of Defense under George H.W. Bush, through two controversial terms as Vice President under President George W. Bush. According to the producers, the project will center on Cheney’s “single-minded pursuit of enhanced  power for the Presidency (that) was unprecedented in the nation’s history.”

Read the full post here.

In the meantime, don’t hold your breath for any kind of election-timed docu-drama titled, Jeremiah and Me, or Obama: The Lost College Years the Media Isn’t Interested in Investigating.

—–

The overall context is even worse.  The conversation surrounds an assassination attempt on Cheney.

I’m just saying if [Cheney] did die, other people, more people would live. That’s a fact. [full transcript below the fold]

This is the mistake guys like Maher make when they start complaining about the speech of others, especially when you’ve personally said something on national television about how much better the world would be if the Vice President were dead. The bipartisan use of crosshairs on a map doesn’t even begin to compare to that, nor do jokes about your opponent being afraid to leave the house. Maher isn’t using a metaphor here. In front of millions of rabid partisans, he’s painting a picture of how much better the world be if that Cheney guy was dead.

I personally don’t remember Maher saying this and it’s obviously a classless thing to say but if someone had made an attempt on Cheney’s life with a VHS tape of this quote between their teeth, it wouldn’t be Maher’s fault. Though according to his own reasoning, just the opposite is true.

Furthermore, this is the man who probably didn’t have his “Politically Incorrect” contract renewed at ABC for making a controversial statement about the “bravery” of the 9/11 attackers just days after the attack. Many on the right, including Rush Limbaugh, stood up for him and yet here he is on the “Tonight Show” justifying ABC’s decision to fire him because he has just devolved into a being who now sounds like Ari Fleisher reminding us to ”watch what we say” — something Fleischer said when asked about Maher’s 9/11 comments.

Are these this week’s New Rules, Bill?

March 03, 2007 on NewsBusters:

A little less than a year after announcing it, in front of Vice President Cheney, Donald Rumsfeld and many other American foreign policy elites at Frank Gaffney’s “Keeper of the Flame” Award Dinner in October 2009, we are finally launching Big Peace.

It took nine months because this site has to be done right, and with Hoover Institution Research Fellow and bestselling author Peter Schweizer, we found the perfect editor. Because I am not a foreign policy or military expert, I needed to create a core editorial unit that represented the highest-end understanding of policy while at the same time bringing, at a time of war, a “boots-on-the-ground” perspective.

Frank Gaffney, the Founder and President of the Center for Security Policy provides over thirty years of expertise in national defense including as stint as Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for Nuclear Forces and Arms Control Policy under Ronald Reagan. Jim Hansen and the mil-bloggers at Black Five are bringing years of cutting edge reportage from the front lines of multiple wars.

For the last 10 months, Big Government has been the “Big home”” for these stories but Big Peace is now their proper venue. For instance, bestselling author Brad Thor broke the story two months ago that Mullah Mohammed Omar had been captured by Pakistani ISI. That story was also confirmed by Lt. Col. Oliver North and Baba Tim. Notice the Obama administration and the Department of Defense have not officially denied this story. We also broke the story about the Obama Administration’s decision to move Guantanamo Bay prisoners to Thompson Correctional Facility in Illinois.

These major stories and more now have a natural home at Big Peace. Journalists, former Pentagon officials, foreign policy officials, foreign dignitaries, members of the armed forces, elected officials, and assorted insiders will use the dynamic “Big Group Blog Template” to make American and international security front page news once again. And, of course, you, our readers will be able to contribute to the discussion through our dynamic interactive comments section on each post.

As the site’s resident skeptic of main stream media accountability, I have noticed that the amount of reporters and media outlets covering national security and the war has dwindled and skepticism over American military commitment has waned now that there isn’t a Bush or a Republican in charge. The war beat is getting short shrift. Big Peace was created to fill this void and to provide biased coverage.

The site is pro-freedom, pro-liberty, and pro-American but will not be an outlet for false information or propaganda. The unique mix of Schweizer, Gaffney, and Blackfive and our collective reputations will provide a check and balance.

When I told American artist Steve Penley, a close friend, about the idea of Big Peace, he was so excited that he offered his brilliant talent to create the banner artwork. I think that it conveys better than my words what this site is all about. Reagan put it best: Peace through strength.

—–

Check out this delightful Newsbuster’s interview with yours truly (i.e., me)

http://is.gd/d9WNv

Tonight, another delightful group of delightful people!

Comedian Joe Derosa!

Commentator and wit Steven Crowder!

First timer Kerry Picket!

and Under cover agent Jack Garcia!

That being said, this season has been refreshingly solid.  Aside from the atrocious “Let’s prosecute Cheney!” season premiere, each successive episode has been vintage “Law & Order.”  The most recent episode (“Dignity,” October 23) bordered on spectacular.  *Spoiler alert*

It did not begin auspiciously.  The opening sequence set the stage for yet another warmed-over episode wherein an abortionist is murdered, and the rest of the program consists of detectives trying to determine which anti-abortion nutter did the deed.  The show’s writers usually permit one character to utter a single token pro-life line (“Just because you might disagree with abortion doesn’t justify this violence!”), while the oh-so-reasonable pro-choice characters get the last word.  Having seen this template before, I almost flipped channels.  It seems as though at least one of the L&O spinoff series airs a “new” abortion-doctor-murder episode every year.  One wonders if more abortionists have been slain on this fictional television franchise over the past 20 years than in real life.

But last week’s episode marked a dramatic departure from the familiar, biased trope.  After detective Bernard makes a few forceful pro-life points in an impromptu squad car debate with his partner, ADA Cutter jumps into the fray. He professes his pro-life views and refutes a condescending response from his pro-choice colleague (Rubirosa) by citing the “turning tide” of public opinion and mentioning that most Americans now consider themselves pro-life.  Apparently Mr. Cutter’s been checking the latest Gallup stats. Rubirosa replies by pointedly referring to those who share Cutter’s views as “anti-choice,” at which point the reliably liberal District Attorney, Jack McCoy, mentions his own daughter’s change of heart on the issue.  She was staunchly pro-choice, he explains, prior to seeing the image of her unborn child in an ultrasound.   End of scene.

Jaw-dropping stuff.

Later in the episode, it’s revealed that the victim was performing illegal, post-birth abortions–more commonly known as murder–at his clinic.  A whistle-blower nurse informs the DA office that she left the deceased doctor’s practice after witnessing a failed abortion result in a live birth, and then a callous killing.  (For those who follow the abortion issue closely, this story may sound familiar.  It also raises an issue that was used to highlight the radical pro-abortion record of a certain post-partisan Messiah during the 2008 campaign). On the stand, the nurse testifies about the repugnant practice, explaining that the baby’s corpse was discarded as “medical waste.” This revelation horrifies both Rubirosa and the jury.

Later in the trial, another witness describes her decision not to abort her severely disabled child.  Her story moves the jury to tears.

The prosecution then calls an expert witness–a doctor–who testifies that his murdered colleague was doing good, medically necessary work.  Upon cross-examination, he’s exposed as a pro-abortion zealot; willing to perform third trimester abortions for any reason, no matter what the law says.  His contempt for Christians and pro-lifers is palpable, and turns off the jury.  The prosecutors are left wringing their hands about how poorly he performed on the stand.

Again, stunning.  I kept checking the channel guide–this really was “Law & Order.”

As the episode drew to a close, ADA Rubirosa offers the following admission:

“I grew up thinking Roe v. Wade was gospel.  That a woman’s privacy was inviolate.  But after hearing that woman on the stand talk about her baby dying in her arms, I don’t know.   I don’t know where my privacy ends and another being’s dignity begins.”

Cutter (the pro-life one, remember) tells her that in the current case, the distinctions are pretty black and white, and that it’s their job to put away the bad guys.  To which Rubirosa replies,

“I’m glad it’s so clear-cut for you, Mike.  Unfortunately, I can’t leave my soul in the umbrella stand when I come into work in the morning.”

You can watch the scene described above here.  In case you were curious, the trial ends with the abortionist’s killer being convicted.  (A verdict that all true pro-lifers would applaud).  ”Dignity” provided viewers with a nuanced, layered depiction of a hot-button social issue that did justice–and then some–to the conservative position.

To the writers and producers of “Law & Order,” Bravo.

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.

Yes, it looks as though unless Ahmadinejad, the ghost of Joseph Stalin or the surviving members of the Weather Underground show up to steal his thunder, Hugo Chavez (whose Indian name is “He Who Rides Little Girl Bike“) is the toast of the 2009 Venice Film Festival.

The hoopla surrounds Oliver Stone’s latest documentary “South of the Border,” which the the L.A. Times describes as a “counterpoint to the prevailing U.S. image of Chávez … as a bellicose dictator-cum-comic opera figure.”

I’m still unclear how one is supposed to represent a bellicose dictator-cum-comic opera figure as something other than a bellicose dictator-cum-comic opera figure, but rest assure Oliver — Can I play soccer with Uncle Hugo?– Stone gave it the old college try; the same Oliver Stone who portrayed the Abraham Lincoln of the Middle East and his Vice President as warped and sinister.

Meanwhile, in a land where enabling evil is considered a bad thing, events are unfolding that probably won’t be found as a helpful update in the “South of the Border” DVD release:

Tens of thousands marched through Venezuela’s capital on Saturday to protest what they call growing authoritarianism by President Hugo Chávez.

And you can practically see The Beautiful People, hands over ears, chanting nanananaIcan’thearyounanananaIcan’thear you… over the news that Chavez will “democratize media ownership” through the closing of up to 100 radio stations “biased against the Chavez government”:

Infrastructure Minister Diosdado Cabello closed 34 radio stations in July, saying the government was “democratizing” media ownership. …

Venezuela will pull the plug on 29 more radio stations, a top official in President Hugo Chavez’s government said[.] …

The powerful Chavez ally has threatened to close over 100 stations in total, part of a long-term campaign against private media that the government says are biased against Chavez’s government.

What a relief that perverting the language could never lead to something like that here in America.