3 hours 23 minutes ago.
Jesse Perez
Nancy Cartwright, the woman famous for being the voice of Bart Simpson, could find herself eating her shorts for using the character to promote her religion – the controversial Church Of Scientology.
Audio has emerged of Cartwright’s voice in a robocall campaign promoting a Scientology event at the Church’s Hollywood center.
The problem is, she has also thrown in the mix the voice of her most popular character, Bart Simpson, but without the permission of Fox, creators of The Simpsons.
“Hey what’s happening man this is Bart Simpson….hahaha…. just kidding don’t hang up this is Nancy Cartwright. And this is a very special phone call to you. I’m now auditing on new OT (Operating Thetan Level) Seven.” the message said.
Cartwright was emphasizing that she had reached a higher echelon of the churches practice, and later promoted a talk she was giving at a special scientology event.
“It’s gonna be a blast man” Cartwright said, in the voice of Bart Simpson.
Her choice to do this could put the 51-year-old in serious violation of her contract with Fox, as the intellectual property of Bart Simpson is owned by them, not by her.
“This is not authorized by us," said Al Jean, executive producer of the Simpsons. "'The Simpsons' does not, and never has, endorsed any religion, philosophy or system of beliefs any more profound than Butterfinger bars."
Cartwright has been in the stable of high-profile Scientologists for nearly 20 years – joining in 1989, she has been a prominent advocate for the self-help group.
http://www.livenews.com.au/Articles/2009/01/29/Bart_Simpson_used_by_Cartwright_to_promote_Scientology
Thursday, January 29, 2009
Man held after child falls from West Gate bridge near Spotswood
Sarah Wotherspoon
January 29, 2009 09:47am
UPDATE 11.35am: A GIRL has died after allegedly being thrown from the West Gate Bridge. Her father is in police custody.
The girl, believed to be about five years old, was pulled from the water by water police close to the pumping station at Spotswood about 9.30am.
The man in custody is from Hawthorn, Assistant Commissioner Ken Lay told 3AW radio. He was arrested outside the Federal Court at 10.30am.
It is understood he had two young children with him.
The girl is being treated in the emergency department of the Royal Children's Hospital.
Witnesses told police they saw a man stop on an inbound lane near the top of the West Gate. It is believed the young child was then thrown over the edge.
He threw the child into the waters below and then drove off, they said.
Police say the vehicle was a white Toyota 4WD and the incident happened around 9.10am.
They have appealed to the public to provide any information they may have.
Paramedic team manger Trevor Weston said paramedics worked on a six-year-old girl.
"Paramedics worked for about 50 minutes at the scene and the child was then conveyed to the Royal Children's Hospital," Mr Weston said.
"Anything that involves children takes its toll on paramedics. Fortunately it's not a very frequent occurrence."
The girl was airlifted to the Royal Children's Hospital in a critical condition with massive internal injuries.
"Everyone at the scene did a fantastic job and we're very focused on doing everything they could for the child," Mr Weston said.
Ambulance Victoria was called just after 9.30am to a report of a child in the water underneath the West Gate Bridge, Ambulance Victoria spokesman Paul Bentley said.
"The child suffered fairly extensive injuries and the paramedics spent some time trying to resuscitate the child," Mr Bentley said.
"I understand the police boat was used to get the child from the water to the Yarraville side."
The homicide squad is investigating the incident and have appealed for information from the public.
Anyone with information is urged to contact Crime Stoppers on 1800 333 000 or visit website www.crimestoppers.com.au
- with Matt Johnston
More to follow
http://www.news.com.au/heraldsun/story/0,21985,24978703-661,00.html
January 29, 2009 09:47am
UPDATE 11.35am: A GIRL has died after allegedly being thrown from the West Gate Bridge. Her father is in police custody.
The girl, believed to be about five years old, was pulled from the water by water police close to the pumping station at Spotswood about 9.30am.
The man in custody is from Hawthorn, Assistant Commissioner Ken Lay told 3AW radio. He was arrested outside the Federal Court at 10.30am.
It is understood he had two young children with him.
The girl is being treated in the emergency department of the Royal Children's Hospital.
Witnesses told police they saw a man stop on an inbound lane near the top of the West Gate. It is believed the young child was then thrown over the edge.
He threw the child into the waters below and then drove off, they said.
Police say the vehicle was a white Toyota 4WD and the incident happened around 9.10am.
They have appealed to the public to provide any information they may have.
Paramedic team manger Trevor Weston said paramedics worked on a six-year-old girl.
"Paramedics worked for about 50 minutes at the scene and the child was then conveyed to the Royal Children's Hospital," Mr Weston said.
"Anything that involves children takes its toll on paramedics. Fortunately it's not a very frequent occurrence."
The girl was airlifted to the Royal Children's Hospital in a critical condition with massive internal injuries.
"Everyone at the scene did a fantastic job and we're very focused on doing everything they could for the child," Mr Weston said.
Ambulance Victoria was called just after 9.30am to a report of a child in the water underneath the West Gate Bridge, Ambulance Victoria spokesman Paul Bentley said.
"The child suffered fairly extensive injuries and the paramedics spent some time trying to resuscitate the child," Mr Bentley said.
"I understand the police boat was used to get the child from the water to the Yarraville side."
The homicide squad is investigating the incident and have appealed for information from the public.
Anyone with information is urged to contact Crime Stoppers on 1800 333 000 or visit website www.crimestoppers.com.au
- with Matt Johnston
More to follow
http://www.news.com.au/heraldsun/story/0,21985,24978703-661,00.html
Saturday, January 24, 2009
It's game on for the king of the West End musical
Marina Hyde
The Guardian, Friday 23 January 2009
One of the questions Lost in Showbiz occasionally likes to ask of certain members of the creative community is: how much money is enough? Seriously, I know you're artists and stuff, but what is the magic number of hundreds of millions at which you would reject a commercial proposal out of hand, on the grounds that this one feels a little bit more about the numbers than the art?
For Andrew Lloyd Webber, that figure would appear to be somewhere well north of the £600m at which his personal fortune is currently estimated. And frankly, thank Christ for that - because he's only gone and announced he's developing a range of video games based on his musical stage shows.
Wii Aspects of Love? I'm pre-ordering my copy today As Douglas Glen, digital director of his lordship's Really Useful Group, declares: "Now is the perfect time for us to take some of the best-known names in musical entertainment in a more interactive direction."
To this end, the firm has been in talks with several international game publishers, including EA. Motto: challenge everything - including the idea that Jesus Christ Superstar wouldn't make an awesome first person shooter. Lost in Showbiz is already dreaming up game scenarios: "You will take the role of Judas, a low level-operative in the criminalised organisation of Jesus Christ, a messianic outlaw bent on cleaning up Jerusalem by any means necessary. You must rise through the ranks of his movement and ultimately take him down - but only if you can handle the betrayal. Got a friend over? Then he needs to get his Caiaphas on. Player 2 has entered the game."
It's amazing, really, how little tweaking the West End juggernauts of yesteryear require to become the sandbox games of tomorrow. In Call of Duty: Argentina, players could choose to play Eva Peron as either Madonna or Elaine Paige, before embarking on a perilous, upwardly mobile journey through a simulated 1940s Buenos Aires landscape.
Starlight Express is even more of a gimme. What was the original stage show, if not a now embarrassingly Betamax version of today's vehicle simulation games? Naturally, one would hope that there would be some kind of special secret code you could type in, that would give an exclusive few the chance to see Mr Mistoffelees giving one to Bonnie Langford, or the Phantom of the Opera doing the Soulja Boy dance. That would be 200% gnarly.
The main thing to accept today is that Lloyd Webber is not creatively satisfied by the analogue nature of his achievements. Instead, he is constantly pushing that envelope - dare I say to the greater good of humanity as a whole?
Lost in Showbiz suggests you think of this latest expansionist dream as the Lloyd Webber project's Great Leap Forward. After all, there was a time - perhaps when the BBC was screening 13-week advertorials for his commercial ventures, such as How do You Solve a Problem Like Maria - that you probably wondered whether Andrew's exhumation could be resisted. Who was this tune-crazed homunculus, and why had he returned from the 80s to lay siege to your eardrums? Was there an alternative to attending his "Nancy School", or would failure to enrol result in your Phantom-style disfigurement? Perhaps your children cowered behind the sofa, demanding between terrified sobs to know who the sea-beast on the plastic throne was - leaving you muttering something vague about someone having to keep Michael Ball in transfats.
But that was then. Just behold Lloyd Webber 2.0: tie-less, Wii-trim, and a multi-platform inevitability. He has the stage shows; he has the films. He has the albums; he has the TV shows. He has the downloads - and now he has the gaming arm.
You can no more argue against gravity than you can against his lordship's drive to annexe the furthest corners of the entertainment landscape using only his back catalogue, until every last human has been co-opted into the chorus line of a giant, World of Warcraft-style multiplayer version of Cats, and we are finally able to leave our corporeal selves behind, joining together in a virtual karaoke version of Memory. Game over? Why, it's only just begun!
http://www.guardian.co.uk/lifeandstyle/lostinshowbiz/2009/jan/23/andrew-lloyd-webber
The Guardian, Friday 23 January 2009
One of the questions Lost in Showbiz occasionally likes to ask of certain members of the creative community is: how much money is enough? Seriously, I know you're artists and stuff, but what is the magic number of hundreds of millions at which you would reject a commercial proposal out of hand, on the grounds that this one feels a little bit more about the numbers than the art?
For Andrew Lloyd Webber, that figure would appear to be somewhere well north of the £600m at which his personal fortune is currently estimated. And frankly, thank Christ for that - because he's only gone and announced he's developing a range of video games based on his musical stage shows.
Wii Aspects of Love? I'm pre-ordering my copy today As Douglas Glen, digital director of his lordship's Really Useful Group, declares: "Now is the perfect time for us to take some of the best-known names in musical entertainment in a more interactive direction."
To this end, the firm has been in talks with several international game publishers, including EA. Motto: challenge everything - including the idea that Jesus Christ Superstar wouldn't make an awesome first person shooter. Lost in Showbiz is already dreaming up game scenarios: "You will take the role of Judas, a low level-operative in the criminalised organisation of Jesus Christ, a messianic outlaw bent on cleaning up Jerusalem by any means necessary. You must rise through the ranks of his movement and ultimately take him down - but only if you can handle the betrayal. Got a friend over? Then he needs to get his Caiaphas on. Player 2 has entered the game."
It's amazing, really, how little tweaking the West End juggernauts of yesteryear require to become the sandbox games of tomorrow. In Call of Duty: Argentina, players could choose to play Eva Peron as either Madonna or Elaine Paige, before embarking on a perilous, upwardly mobile journey through a simulated 1940s Buenos Aires landscape.
Starlight Express is even more of a gimme. What was the original stage show, if not a now embarrassingly Betamax version of today's vehicle simulation games? Naturally, one would hope that there would be some kind of special secret code you could type in, that would give an exclusive few the chance to see Mr Mistoffelees giving one to Bonnie Langford, or the Phantom of the Opera doing the Soulja Boy dance. That would be 200% gnarly.
The main thing to accept today is that Lloyd Webber is not creatively satisfied by the analogue nature of his achievements. Instead, he is constantly pushing that envelope - dare I say to the greater good of humanity as a whole?
Lost in Showbiz suggests you think of this latest expansionist dream as the Lloyd Webber project's Great Leap Forward. After all, there was a time - perhaps when the BBC was screening 13-week advertorials for his commercial ventures, such as How do You Solve a Problem Like Maria - that you probably wondered whether Andrew's exhumation could be resisted. Who was this tune-crazed homunculus, and why had he returned from the 80s to lay siege to your eardrums? Was there an alternative to attending his "Nancy School", or would failure to enrol result in your Phantom-style disfigurement? Perhaps your children cowered behind the sofa, demanding between terrified sobs to know who the sea-beast on the plastic throne was - leaving you muttering something vague about someone having to keep Michael Ball in transfats.
But that was then. Just behold Lloyd Webber 2.0: tie-less, Wii-trim, and a multi-platform inevitability. He has the stage shows; he has the films. He has the albums; he has the TV shows. He has the downloads - and now he has the gaming arm.
You can no more argue against gravity than you can against his lordship's drive to annexe the furthest corners of the entertainment landscape using only his back catalogue, until every last human has been co-opted into the chorus line of a giant, World of Warcraft-style multiplayer version of Cats, and we are finally able to leave our corporeal selves behind, joining together in a virtual karaoke version of Memory. Game over? Why, it's only just begun!
http://www.guardian.co.uk/lifeandstyle/lostinshowbiz/2009/jan/23/andrew-lloyd-webber
Wednesday, January 21, 2009
Barack Obama to end US army's 'don't ask, don't tell' policy towards gays
President-Elect Barack Obama will end the "don't ask, don't tell" policy towards gays in the military as part of moves to sweep away remnants of the Bush era.
By Alex Spillius in Washington
Last Updated: 6:15AM GMT 15 Jan 2009
The move is expected to be among a series of symbolic changes he will push through quickly to stamp his mark on the presidency.
He is also expected to reverse several controversial executive Bush decisions within days of taking office next week.
Mr Obama has committed to closing the US military prison at Guantanamo Bay and will formally ban all interrogative techniques that could be described as torture, such as waterboarding.
It is expected that he will also reverse Mr Bush's orders restricting the distribution of funds for stem cell research and to overseas groups that offer abortion counselling.
The change of policy on homosexuality will allow gays to serve openly in all branches of the armed forces.
Though a timeline was not put on the reversal of the policy, Robert Gibbs, who becomes Mr Obama's press secretary next week, was unequivocal that it would happen.
When questioned about whether the policy would change on the Obama transition website, he wrote: "You don't hear politicians give a one-word answer much. But it's 'Yes'."
Mr Obama opposed the policy during the campaign, but since his election has made statements that gay pressure groups interpreted as lukewarm commitments.
The issue became a distraction in the early days of Bill Clinton's presidency. He tried to push through reform that would have allowed gays and lesbians to serve openly but had to compromise with the "don't ask, don't tell" solution, which has been maintained by the Bush administration.
Although introduced before he came to power, Mr Bush's refusal to change the "don't ask, don't tell" policy angered many in America.
There is now however much wider public support for removing any restrictions on male and female gay personnel. Colin Powell, the former chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, is among influential figures who have called for the policy to be re-evaluated.
During his campaign Mr Obama often spoke out against what he called Bush's abuse of executive authority.
"I was a constitutional law professor, which means unlike the current president, I actually respect the Constitution," he said in 2007.
Russ Feingold, the Democratic Senator for Wisconsin, a strong critic of Mr Bush’s accumulation of executive power, said he had been informed by Mr Obama’s transition staff the records of past presidents might also be made more available.
He said the incoming president would support a bill he is proposing to make public some opinions from the Justice Department’s Office of Legal Counsel, which issued some of the most controversial extensions of presidential power in the Bush era.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/northamerica/usa/barackobama/4241873/Barack-Obama-to-end-US-armys-dont-ask-dont-tell-policy-towards-gays.html
By Alex Spillius in Washington
Last Updated: 6:15AM GMT 15 Jan 2009
The move is expected to be among a series of symbolic changes he will push through quickly to stamp his mark on the presidency.
He is also expected to reverse several controversial executive Bush decisions within days of taking office next week.
Mr Obama has committed to closing the US military prison at Guantanamo Bay and will formally ban all interrogative techniques that could be described as torture, such as waterboarding.
It is expected that he will also reverse Mr Bush's orders restricting the distribution of funds for stem cell research and to overseas groups that offer abortion counselling.
The change of policy on homosexuality will allow gays to serve openly in all branches of the armed forces.
Though a timeline was not put on the reversal of the policy, Robert Gibbs, who becomes Mr Obama's press secretary next week, was unequivocal that it would happen.
When questioned about whether the policy would change on the Obama transition website, he wrote: "You don't hear politicians give a one-word answer much. But it's 'Yes'."
Mr Obama opposed the policy during the campaign, but since his election has made statements that gay pressure groups interpreted as lukewarm commitments.
The issue became a distraction in the early days of Bill Clinton's presidency. He tried to push through reform that would have allowed gays and lesbians to serve openly but had to compromise with the "don't ask, don't tell" solution, which has been maintained by the Bush administration.
Although introduced before he came to power, Mr Bush's refusal to change the "don't ask, don't tell" policy angered many in America.
There is now however much wider public support for removing any restrictions on male and female gay personnel. Colin Powell, the former chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, is among influential figures who have called for the policy to be re-evaluated.
During his campaign Mr Obama often spoke out against what he called Bush's abuse of executive authority.
"I was a constitutional law professor, which means unlike the current president, I actually respect the Constitution," he said in 2007.
Russ Feingold, the Democratic Senator for Wisconsin, a strong critic of Mr Bush’s accumulation of executive power, said he had been informed by Mr Obama’s transition staff the records of past presidents might also be made more available.
He said the incoming president would support a bill he is proposing to make public some opinions from the Justice Department’s Office of Legal Counsel, which issued some of the most controversial extensions of presidential power in the Bush era.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/northamerica/usa/barackobama/4241873/Barack-Obama-to-end-US-armys-dont-ask-dont-tell-policy-towards-gays.html
Monday, January 19, 2009
Roberta's new man 'a killer'
13:00 AEST
Sun Jan 18 2009
Roberta Williams's new boyfriend was reportedly involved in the brutal killing of a 14-year-old boy.
Robert Carpenter was jailed for seven years over the 1997 killing of Joel Russell, the Sunday Herald Sun reported.
Carpenter — who is apparently dating Williams, the ex-wife of underworld killer Carl — was part of a gang of six who tied up and bashed the teenager before leaving his body in the Yarra River.
The boy's body was weighed down and bound in electrical cord, and his injuries included a broken back, broken ribs and a ruptured kidney.
Carpenter's gang wrongly attacked Joel Russell because they believed he was behind the robbery of their leader Lance Franklin's house.
The teen's twin sister killed herself several months later, citing the boy's death as a reason in her suicide note.
Williams claimed yesterday she did not know of her boyfriend's criminal past, the report said.
"I've got no idea what you're talking about," she was quoted as saying.
Williams appeared in court last week while attending her son's hearing on theft and burglary charges.
Tye Stephens, 22, was remanded in custody until April, accused of a four-month crime spree that netted almost $300,000 in cash and goods.
Mother-of-four Williams has previously pledged to sever her links to Melbourne's underworld.
But earlier this month she hurled insults at gangland lawyer and former friend Zoe Garde-Wilson.
"I made a promise to her, when I see her I am going to hurt her. I tell you, I would like to give her a nice head-butt," Williams reportedly said.
Williams's ex-husband, underworld figure Carl Williams, was sentenced last year to a minimum of 35 years in jail for the murders of three underworld rivals.
http://news.ninemsn.com.au/national/720154/robertas-new-man-a-killer
HE GOT 7 YEARS FOR BEING INVOLVED IN A BRUTAL MURDER OF A 14 YEAR OLD!!!! 7 YEARS!!!! AND THE SISTER COMMITTED SUICIDE!!! WHY THE FUCK THE WHOLE FAMILY HASN'T COMMITTED SUICIDE OR SHOT THE FUCKING BASTARD IS BEYOND ME!!! HE GOT 7 YEARS WHEN HE SHOULD HAVE GOT LIFE!!! THIS IS A FUCKING FARCE!!! FUCKING JUSTICE SYSTEM!!!
Sun Jan 18 2009
Roberta Williams's new boyfriend was reportedly involved in the brutal killing of a 14-year-old boy.
Robert Carpenter was jailed for seven years over the 1997 killing of Joel Russell, the Sunday Herald Sun reported.
Carpenter — who is apparently dating Williams, the ex-wife of underworld killer Carl — was part of a gang of six who tied up and bashed the teenager before leaving his body in the Yarra River.
The boy's body was weighed down and bound in electrical cord, and his injuries included a broken back, broken ribs and a ruptured kidney.
Carpenter's gang wrongly attacked Joel Russell because they believed he was behind the robbery of their leader Lance Franklin's house.
The teen's twin sister killed herself several months later, citing the boy's death as a reason in her suicide note.
Williams claimed yesterday she did not know of her boyfriend's criminal past, the report said.
"I've got no idea what you're talking about," she was quoted as saying.
Williams appeared in court last week while attending her son's hearing on theft and burglary charges.
Tye Stephens, 22, was remanded in custody until April, accused of a four-month crime spree that netted almost $300,000 in cash and goods.
Mother-of-four Williams has previously pledged to sever her links to Melbourne's underworld.
But earlier this month she hurled insults at gangland lawyer and former friend Zoe Garde-Wilson.
"I made a promise to her, when I see her I am going to hurt her. I tell you, I would like to give her a nice head-butt," Williams reportedly said.
Williams's ex-husband, underworld figure Carl Williams, was sentenced last year to a minimum of 35 years in jail for the murders of three underworld rivals.
http://news.ninemsn.com.au/national/720154/robertas-new-man-a-killer
HE GOT 7 YEARS FOR BEING INVOLVED IN A BRUTAL MURDER OF A 14 YEAR OLD!!!! 7 YEARS!!!! AND THE SISTER COMMITTED SUICIDE!!! WHY THE FUCK THE WHOLE FAMILY HASN'T COMMITTED SUICIDE OR SHOT THE FUCKING BASTARD IS BEYOND ME!!! HE GOT 7 YEARS WHEN HE SHOULD HAVE GOT LIFE!!! THIS IS A FUCKING FARCE!!! FUCKING JUSTICE SYSTEM!!!
Thursday, January 15, 2009
Yes George, you served your master well
14.01.2009
Source: Pravda.Ru
Now George it is over. Your Faustian deal gave you eight years of illegal and undeserved power.
And did you make the most of it! You stole elections without hesitation, you lied without compunction, you started illegal wars without any consideration for international law, you shredded the Constitution without any respect for the check-and-balance system, you opened up concentration camps without any concern for the rule of law, and you maimed, tortured, and murdered without any regard for fundamental human rights.
You fiddled while New Orleans floundered, while your cronies in the oil industry drove prices through the roof, while war profiteers ruthlessly plundered Iraq, and while the economy suffered its worst decline in decades.
Yes George, you served your master well.
And he served you. The suffering you inflicted upon others never touched you—aside from a pair of poorly aimed shoes. You were never impeached, prosecuted or even censured as a war criminal. And the fact that you intend—as you stated in your final press briefing—to spend your days lounging on the beach, when you should be spending them in a prison cell, adds just another name to the historical list of evildoers who have been rewarded for their crimes.
Many critics claim that your arrogance, your ineptitude, and your self-serving distortions of the Christian faith are to blame for the eight-year nightmare you thrust upon the world. They say that history will recognize this, and perhaps not judge you so harshly.
If that be so then history will be a lie, because it will fail to recognize what millions of Americans also failed to recognize before you stole your first election: that you and your cronies are pure and simply evil.
One can vilify Hugo Chavez and the Mayan Indians all they want for openly recognizing this evil. The truth is that those Americans who refused to recognize your evil only confirmed that classic line from the movie THE USUAL SUSPECTS: “The greatest trick the devil ever pulled was convincing the world he didn’t exist.”
Many Americans shared your arrogance, and it blinded them to your hypocrisy. “America,” they claimed, “was better than those petty dictatorships in third-world countries that loathe democracy, freedom and human rights.” And thus they allowed you to turn America into the very beast they claimed to abhor.
You condemned the tyranny of Saddam Hussein. Yes, he was an evil man. Yes, he placed people in illegal detention, used torture, rigged elections, and killed for political reasons. Yet, at the end of the day, his legacy is not much different from yours. So can it truly be called justice when he paid for his crimes with his life, while you “pay” for yours lounging about in a beachside mansion?
During your illegal occupancy of the White House, you also exposed the corporate-controlled media for what they really are, profit-driven machines dealing in sensationalism and superficiality so they don’t have to cover actual news.
Today these media unabashedly refer to the conflict in Iraq as an “unpopular war.” But just a few years ago they were the primary cheerleaders fueling this war, silencing anti-war voices, and even firing reporters who questioned your motives for invading Iraq.
Your seventy-five percent disapproval rating today masks the fact that just a few years ago your approval rating stood at eighty-six percent, and at pro-war rallies throughout America participants were speaking of you and your fellow war criminals as if you were deities. What a different world it would now be if this eighty-six percent had recognized the depths of your evil before the coup of 2000, instead of when it was too late.
I wish there was a silver lining to the clouds that shrouded America for the past eight years. One could argue that beginning the new millennium in the grip of your evil means there is no place to go for the next nine hundred and ninety-two years but up. But this obscures the fact that those who fail to acknowledge evil at its inception are forever destined to be manipulated by mendacious, venal, megalomaniacal people who, to paraphrase Jesus, are willing to lose their souls to gain the world.
But for you George it is over. Satan has fulfilled his end of the bargain. One day you and your cronies will be obligated to fulfill yours. Now all that is left to ask is this: Was the prospect of making reservations in history worth making reservations in hell?
So good riddance to George W. Bush, Dick Cheney, Donald Rumsfeld, John Ashcroft, Alberto Gonzales, Paul Wolfowitz, Condoleezza Rice, John Yoo, Karl Rove and the other architects of evil too numerous to mention. May all the pain, suffering, torture and injustice you and your cronies inflicted upon others ultimately be visited upon you—for all eternity.
Justice demands nothing less.
David R. Hoffman
Legal Editor of Pravda.Ru
http://english.pravda.ru/world/americas/14-01-2009/106942-george_bush_goodbye-0
Source: Pravda.Ru
Now George it is over. Your Faustian deal gave you eight years of illegal and undeserved power.
And did you make the most of it! You stole elections without hesitation, you lied without compunction, you started illegal wars without any consideration for international law, you shredded the Constitution without any respect for the check-and-balance system, you opened up concentration camps without any concern for the rule of law, and you maimed, tortured, and murdered without any regard for fundamental human rights.
You fiddled while New Orleans floundered, while your cronies in the oil industry drove prices through the roof, while war profiteers ruthlessly plundered Iraq, and while the economy suffered its worst decline in decades.
Yes George, you served your master well.
And he served you. The suffering you inflicted upon others never touched you—aside from a pair of poorly aimed shoes. You were never impeached, prosecuted or even censured as a war criminal. And the fact that you intend—as you stated in your final press briefing—to spend your days lounging on the beach, when you should be spending them in a prison cell, adds just another name to the historical list of evildoers who have been rewarded for their crimes.
Many critics claim that your arrogance, your ineptitude, and your self-serving distortions of the Christian faith are to blame for the eight-year nightmare you thrust upon the world. They say that history will recognize this, and perhaps not judge you so harshly.
If that be so then history will be a lie, because it will fail to recognize what millions of Americans also failed to recognize before you stole your first election: that you and your cronies are pure and simply evil.
One can vilify Hugo Chavez and the Mayan Indians all they want for openly recognizing this evil. The truth is that those Americans who refused to recognize your evil only confirmed that classic line from the movie THE USUAL SUSPECTS: “The greatest trick the devil ever pulled was convincing the world he didn’t exist.”
Many Americans shared your arrogance, and it blinded them to your hypocrisy. “America,” they claimed, “was better than those petty dictatorships in third-world countries that loathe democracy, freedom and human rights.” And thus they allowed you to turn America into the very beast they claimed to abhor.
You condemned the tyranny of Saddam Hussein. Yes, he was an evil man. Yes, he placed people in illegal detention, used torture, rigged elections, and killed for political reasons. Yet, at the end of the day, his legacy is not much different from yours. So can it truly be called justice when he paid for his crimes with his life, while you “pay” for yours lounging about in a beachside mansion?
During your illegal occupancy of the White House, you also exposed the corporate-controlled media for what they really are, profit-driven machines dealing in sensationalism and superficiality so they don’t have to cover actual news.
Today these media unabashedly refer to the conflict in Iraq as an “unpopular war.” But just a few years ago they were the primary cheerleaders fueling this war, silencing anti-war voices, and even firing reporters who questioned your motives for invading Iraq.
Your seventy-five percent disapproval rating today masks the fact that just a few years ago your approval rating stood at eighty-six percent, and at pro-war rallies throughout America participants were speaking of you and your fellow war criminals as if you were deities. What a different world it would now be if this eighty-six percent had recognized the depths of your evil before the coup of 2000, instead of when it was too late.
I wish there was a silver lining to the clouds that shrouded America for the past eight years. One could argue that beginning the new millennium in the grip of your evil means there is no place to go for the next nine hundred and ninety-two years but up. But this obscures the fact that those who fail to acknowledge evil at its inception are forever destined to be manipulated by mendacious, venal, megalomaniacal people who, to paraphrase Jesus, are willing to lose their souls to gain the world.
But for you George it is over. Satan has fulfilled his end of the bargain. One day you and your cronies will be obligated to fulfill yours. Now all that is left to ask is this: Was the prospect of making reservations in history worth making reservations in hell?
So good riddance to George W. Bush, Dick Cheney, Donald Rumsfeld, John Ashcroft, Alberto Gonzales, Paul Wolfowitz, Condoleezza Rice, John Yoo, Karl Rove and the other architects of evil too numerous to mention. May all the pain, suffering, torture and injustice you and your cronies inflicted upon others ultimately be visited upon you—for all eternity.
Justice demands nothing less.
David R. Hoffman
Legal Editor of Pravda.Ru
http://english.pravda.ru/world/americas/14-01-2009/106942-george_bush_goodbye-0
Sunday, January 11, 2009
Dispute over what rang the bell on High School Musical
Matthew Clayfield and Lauren Wilson
January 10, 2009
Article from: The Australian
THE failure of a stage version of Disney's High School Musical may have been blamed on the global financial crisis, but some in the musical theatre industry have suggested it may just be that the show doesn't work.
The show's Sydney season will close a month earlier than scheduled and a planned national tour has also been canned. In a statement released earlier this week, co-producers Kevin Jacobsen and Tim McFarlane put the show's failure down to poorer than anticipated ticket sales, claiming it had been "a difficult time for all families".
But theatrical producer John Frost, who co-produced both Wicked and the latest incarnation of Phantom of the Opera, said the global financial crisis had not caused other shows to close, including his own.
"With Wicked, the crisis hasn't touched us at all," he told The Australian yesterday.
He said the show had sold more than 400,000 tickets since opening in Melbourne in July last year, while the Perth and Adelaide seasons of Phantom of the Opera were set to exceed targets.
Frost said while it was possible that the target audience for High School Musical -- families with young children -- might have been hit harder by the economic downturn than those attending his shows, it was also possible the show simply did not work.
"These things happen," he said. "You can open one show and get great reviews and terrific word of mouth and then you can open another and it doesn't work and it fails. I think that's probably what's happened."
He said musicals such as Billy Elliot and The Rocky Horror Show, neither of which he was involved with, had also weathered the crisis well. A spokesman for the producers of Billy Elliot confirmed the show was going "great guns", winning seven Helpmann Awards for its Sydney season and selling 120,000 advance tickets in Melbourne.
Filing through the stage door at Sydney's Capitol Theatre last night, members of High School Musical's young cast said they were "devastated" by the news. For many in the group, some of whom are as young as 18, their first professional job in the theatre has come to an unexpectedly abrupt halt.
One female cast member, who asked not to be named, was disappointed but reflective. "It's the nature of the business, right?" she said.
Mr McFarlane has confirmed that the cast, which was informed of the decision on Thursday night, will have their contracts met in full.
He and Mr Jacobsen earlier likened the show's closure to those of numerous Broadway productions this month. Nine shows closed on Broadway last weekend, with some predicting the curtain would fall on no fewer than 16 by the end of February.
Live Performance Australia chief executive Evelyn Richardson said live performance was a cyclical industry.
http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,25197,24893608-15089,00.html
January 10, 2009
Article from: The Australian
THE failure of a stage version of Disney's High School Musical may have been blamed on the global financial crisis, but some in the musical theatre industry have suggested it may just be that the show doesn't work.
The show's Sydney season will close a month earlier than scheduled and a planned national tour has also been canned. In a statement released earlier this week, co-producers Kevin Jacobsen and Tim McFarlane put the show's failure down to poorer than anticipated ticket sales, claiming it had been "a difficult time for all families".
But theatrical producer John Frost, who co-produced both Wicked and the latest incarnation of Phantom of the Opera, said the global financial crisis had not caused other shows to close, including his own.
"With Wicked, the crisis hasn't touched us at all," he told The Australian yesterday.
He said the show had sold more than 400,000 tickets since opening in Melbourne in July last year, while the Perth and Adelaide seasons of Phantom of the Opera were set to exceed targets.
Frost said while it was possible that the target audience for High School Musical -- families with young children -- might have been hit harder by the economic downturn than those attending his shows, it was also possible the show simply did not work.
"These things happen," he said. "You can open one show and get great reviews and terrific word of mouth and then you can open another and it doesn't work and it fails. I think that's probably what's happened."
He said musicals such as Billy Elliot and The Rocky Horror Show, neither of which he was involved with, had also weathered the crisis well. A spokesman for the producers of Billy Elliot confirmed the show was going "great guns", winning seven Helpmann Awards for its Sydney season and selling 120,000 advance tickets in Melbourne.
Filing through the stage door at Sydney's Capitol Theatre last night, members of High School Musical's young cast said they were "devastated" by the news. For many in the group, some of whom are as young as 18, their first professional job in the theatre has come to an unexpectedly abrupt halt.
One female cast member, who asked not to be named, was disappointed but reflective. "It's the nature of the business, right?" she said.
Mr McFarlane has confirmed that the cast, which was informed of the decision on Thursday night, will have their contracts met in full.
He and Mr Jacobsen earlier likened the show's closure to those of numerous Broadway productions this month. Nine shows closed on Broadway last weekend, with some predicting the curtain would fall on no fewer than 16 by the end of February.
Live Performance Australia chief executive Evelyn Richardson said live performance was a cyclical industry.
http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,25197,24893608-15089,00.html
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