Sony Pictures and Academy Award-winning director Kathryn Bigelow have already had to deal with the nightmare that resulted from the cynical release date of their upcoming film surrounding the hunt for and the killing of Osama bin Laden. The original idea was for Sony to release the dramatization this October, just a few weeks prior to the presidential election. Lame, dishonest  protestations aside, obviously the goal was to use the film to give President Obama a reelection boost, not only with the film itself but also with the complicit news media using the film as an excuse to resurrect one of the President’s only successes (thanks to the Bush Administrations willingness to waterboard). Last month, Sony wisely blinked and pushed the release date to after the election, but that doesn’t change what might have happened prior to that move.

Many have speculated (including me) that Sony, Bigelow, screenwriter Mark  Boal, and the White House all got into bed together to create a propaganda film that would hit theatres with the kind of exquisite timing that is never an accident. It’s no secret Sony, like the rest of Hollywood, is deep in the tank for President FailureTeleprompter, and this $40 to $70 million propaganda film would most certainly serve as an in-kind propaganda contribution  that delivered the kind of deus ex machina that can only be dreamed up in Hollywood. Yesterday, and for very good reason, the story turned once again when the Pentagon and CIA got involved.

Apparently, it’s not just us extreme right-wing Republicans who are concerned over the possibility that the White House might have given the studio and filmmakers classified information they weren’t cleared to receive:

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If there’s one word I’m sick of these days, it’s “outreach.” It’s always used in sentences and leaflets that imply the general public isn’t doing enough to “reach out” to specific groups – whether they be differentiated by sexual orientation, race, height, back hair, or -in my case – gorgeousness.

But what I really hate most about “outreach?” It allows folks access to places that a schmuck like me can never get into.

Look – I’m a decent guy. No prison record. No weird tattoos. I don’t cross-dress (anymore). Yet I’ve never lunched as a guest at the Pentagon, in the name of “outreach.”

But get this: the first American on the CIA’s kill or capture list has.

Yep, according to documents obtained by Fox News, Anwar Al-Awlaki – the dude that seems to be involved in every act of terror, was taken to the Pentagon as part of an outreach attempt to the Muslim community – right after 9/11.

A Defense Department employee arranged the meeting, after “being impressed by this imam.” (more…)

So while Republicans rejoiced over a huge victory in Massachusetts, a far bigger win took place at the Pentagon. The winner, sadly, was political correctness – that infectious mist of brainlessness that turns normal men into Jell-O. A bastard child of identity politics and the self-esteem movement, political correctness is an ideology based on avoidance of hurt feelings – and its ability to render humans into thoughtless automatons makes “Invasion of the Body Snatchers” look like “Mamma Mia.”

I am speaking of the Fort Hood Report, which the U.S. military’s just released, detailing the shooting that left 13 dead. In the 86 page thingy, here’s what you won’t find: the name of the killer, or his Muslim faith. The dudes who did the review argue that those pieces of information aren’t important – their concern is more with “actions and effects, not…with motivations.”

Here in Sanity Village, we call this “super duper crazy talk.” (more…)

Mark Twain’s famous quote, “Never pick a fight with someone who buys ink by the barrel,” resonates loudly in my mind as I finish Sarah Palin’s captivating story, Going Rogue.

But Palin ain’t buying it by the barrel, she’s got a whole pipeline of pure grade indigo flowing from the North Slope as she pumps up the volume on her NY Times #1 bestselling memoir.

When I got about halfway through the book I set it down, stepped outside of my Washington, DC townhouse and went for a run around the U.S. Capitol. Listening to the Outlaws, Marshall Tucker Band, and Lil Bow Wow (my daughter slipped that one in there) on my iPod, the recurrent thought in my mind was that this woman is far more qualified to be president of the United States than the current occupant of the White House. (more…)

I remember the moment when I turned on the television that morning eight years ago and saw smoke coming out of a hole in one of the World Trade Center Towers.  I had worked briefly in that building, during my short time living in New York.  I sat in horror, wondering what horrible accident had occurred, what misfortunate pilot had wandered off-course and made such a fatal error.  What a tragedy, I thought.  What a horrible accident.  What a shame.

And then, while I sat there in my comfortable American home watching my big screen television on my recently purchased couch with my coffee in hand, in real time, I saw a second plane hit the other tower.

At that moment, I knew:  This is an attack.  And everything changed for me, utterly and completely. (more…)