Every American should go to this website and watch the program that first aired on ABC News Tuesday, where news anchor Bob Woodruff who suffered a traumatic brain injury from an IED while reporting in Iraq, exposes a conspiracy that most Americans who believe the Bush adminstration’s official claims that only 20,000 people have been injured in Iraq and Afghanistan.  The real number is over 200,000, many with brain injuries so severe, they will need care (from a tax funded, though clearly understaffed, outdated and uneducated Veteran’s Administration ) for the rest of their lives.  The force of these explosives in Iraq is so strong that people are suffering brain injuries without the explosives even penetrating.  Pulsating waves from these improvised explosive devices are causing severe injuries that are often not diagnosed for up to two years.  The Secretary of Veteran Affairs, the “honorable” R. James Nicholson, a Bush cabinet member is nothing more than GW’s lapdog.  He should be forced to resign immediately as he is only propagating the lies of this unlawful dictatorial administration.

Woodruff’s, story is indeed miraculous, and though I don’t have a lot of respect for mainstream news (especially in the censored Bush administration) he is uniquely qualified to uncover this terrible tragedy in Iraq, because he’s lived it.

How many innocent men and women have to suffer and die in silence before something is done?  R. James Nicholson must step down, and this senseless war must be stopped.  Educate yourselves now.  This should not be allowed in the United States of America.

Thanks to Bassam for passing this along :)

There’s also a British version.  You’ve gotta admit, they’re clever!

Unfortunately, “Listen” didn’t win for Best Song though:

     
Speaking of American Idol, here’s the winner from England this year, Leona Lewis.  They say she’s got a voice like Mariah Carey.  She’s quite humble though.  Very inspiring.

Greetings from Hollywood.  Despite universities being blown up in Iraq, the place I call ”home” over indulged today in it’s annual gorging of all things celebrity.  Since I live here, I have to write about it   Below the line is a posting I first wrote on December 30th, that I thought appropriate to revisit due to Jennifer’s much deserved win tonight (though Adriana Barraza was amazing in Babel).

All in all though, the show really dragged on (it was a little better after Celine Dion shut her ugly pie hole).  Some of my friends liked the interpretive dancers, though I thought they were a bit ridiculous (more People’s Choice than Oscar).  They could have cut out half of that crap and just shown people what they wanted to see.  The sound effect people performing stupid noises was an all time low.  Clint Eastwood made a fool of himself with with Marconi.  Also, does the Academy really think that one billion people around the world want to see animated cars, penguins and fake audience shots at the most prestigious award show of the year? 

I thought Ellen was just OK.  I’d give her a C+.  She was a bit overwhelmed.  Her only really good joke was the Al Gore/Jennifer Hudson one. (And for once Al Gore finally won something.)  I’m also a bit tired of Forrest Whitaker and his lazy eye.  We get it, he was good playing a maniacal dictator that he has a resemblance too.  I admit it was a good performance, but if I have to hear about him “channeling Amin” one more time, I’m going to puke.  He’s won every goddamn award this season, you’d think he’d have his fucking speech memorized by now.  Will somebody please tell me again why actors who are used to memorizing hundreds of pages of lines, can’t give a 3 minute acceptance speech without crib notes?  I can see the headlines tomorrow, “Whitaker and Mirren, King and Queen of Oscar”  UGH!  (Though Helen Mirren was great.  She’s a class act and a babe.)  And what was with some of them putting their Oscars on the stage so they could read their speech with two hands?  The non actors are always the best speech givers, it’s ridiculous.

I was glad when whoever that guy at the end was, gave props to Leo.  He really should have won for that film.  And Djimon Hounsou was ROBBED.  That pissed me off, did you see his performance?  It was more than Oscar worthy, it was one of the best performances I’ve ever seen on film. And what was with the very beginning of the show too?  BORING!  Paging Billy Crystal, Billy Crystal to the Kodak Theater.

There was one notable omission tonight:  Katie Holmes won NOTHING for her portrayal of Tom Cruise’s wife.  She was truly robbed.

Queen Latifah narrowly beat Jennifer Hudson for flabbiest arms.  Jennifer still took home the most jiggly breast award (the Milkshake).  I liked the performance between all of the Dreamgirls too, though I thought Beyonce should have had her hair up like she did on Oprah.

Did anyone see Jennifer Holliday’s BIZZARE performance of “And I’m telling you I’m Not Going” on the roof of the Roosevelt Hotel on E! this afternoon.  Was she on drugs?  I hope someone puts it on YouTube soon!  It’s pretty sad actually.  I hope she doesn’t end up like the real Florence Ballard.  (Too bad Ally Mcbeal isn’t still on!)

When will they learn to turn off the audio during the “memoriam”.  It’s so embarrassing when the unrecognizable people get tepid applause, yet they practically give Don Knotts a standing ovation.

Unfortunately I didn’t go to take pictures at any parties tonight.  I’m down in Laguna Hills now for the rest of the week.  A friend just called from outside the Vanity Fair party at Morton’s, which I usually walk to, and he said he got a picture of Oprah.  If he sends it, I’ll post it, but we all know what she looks like untouched.  Actually I’m a bit over her of late. I think she really does think she’s Jesus.

I’m sad that Babel didn’t win, but I’m really happy for Jennifer Hudson

And incidentally, here’s a photo I took of Jennifer Hudson at last year’s American Idol Finale (she’s in the middle).  I snuck into the press line with some fake credentials I made :

Cool Slideshows

Tyson and I went to Disneyland and California Adventure today.  We couldn’t pass it up, because Darlene got us in for free.  Thanks Dar!!  We were both really tired.  He had been standing on a convention floor for the past two days, and I was out late the night before.  We had a great time though, and he of course was a star with people asking to take photos with him.  The fireworks were never ending and the crowds were crazy.  At one point I told him that a lot of people call Disneyland the “Happiest Place on Earth”.  You can see his reply in the title of this post We also found him a house today.  It’s really close to here and close to his work; and it’s a beautiful home.  All in all a good day (despite the crummy LA traffic.  Grrrrr)

Chimpanzees in Senegal have been observed making and using wooden spears to hunt other primates according to a study in the journal Current Biology.  Read more in BBC News…

Recently while cleaning my bathroom with my phone in the pocket of my hooded sweatshirt, the damn phone fell in the toilet (it was a fresh bowl )  I went online to see if there was anything to do without having to buy a new damn phone.  Turns out the phone companies have this big conspiracy when the phones get wet. They know about water damage because there’s

a paper dot on inside the phone or on the battery that turns red,  so they always make you buy a new phone (because water damage isn’t in the warranty).  BUT, several websites said something crazy:  If you take out the battery and the SIM card, and put the phone in the oven for 5 hours at 125° it will dry it out.  I tried it, and lo and behold, it worked!  I still have that phone, and it’s like nothing ever happened.  The hardest part about the whole thing was trying to find the right wine to go with the phone .  Also found out the phone companies have big drying bins, ovens basically, where they dry out phones and resell them as refurbished!  Bastards.  Imagine how much money they rake in by making people buy new phones then reselling the wet ones.  I’m not sure if it works for every phone, and salt water might be a different story, but it worked for me (though some of my friends would rather not touch my phone, knowing where it’s been, LOL.

OK, let me take you back to January 22nd, when I posted “The Good, The Bad & The Bush Baby – A new Idol Low“, referring of course, to the exploitation of two rejected American Idol auditioners, one of whom had competed in the Special Olympics and his friend who was told he looked like a bush baby monkey.  MY position at the time was that American Idol had gone too far, and that it was going to take a “suicide” before it stopped.  Most of my readers disagreed with me, saying that after 5 seasons, everyone who auditioned knew what they were getting themselves into.

Two days later I wrote a post entitled “The Continuing Adventures of Jonathan and Kenneth”  in which I reported that the two rejects already had agents, one had changed his name (apparently to a “stage name”) and that they had been hired to do special reports for Jimmy Kimmel on his late night show.

Fast forward to last night, when the “World Premier” of Jonathan & Kenneth’s new music video, featuring special guest William Hung (who by the way, is now a millionaire) was shown.  I’m rarely wrong, but when I am I’ll admit it.  This is one of the funniest videos you will ever see in your life.  If William Hung is any indication, these two BFF’s will be millionaires by this time next year.  Let’s hope they donate some of it to the Special Olympics.

Actually, it’s not really new….I’ve come full circle since when I started this blog in December (the grey was getting dreary).  I always liked the way a black background looked with white text.  I also like red and black together, but my original design was much too busy and colorful, and no one seemed to like it. Everyone had a different opinion on how to make it better.  So I tried to make it more readable.  Here’s an early prototype from last month:

I am curious to know what people think of this latest version.  It still needs some work.  The link colors are still iffy.  I’ve enabled “snap view” so when you mouse over any link you get a snapshot of what the webpage looks like before you go there.  If the color scheme makes it too hard to read, let me know.  I had to go back and change some postings that had other backgrounds and funky colors, and it took quite a while (I’m still learning).  I’m not too keen on changing it again, at least for a while (until I get bored with it).  Let me know if you have any suggestions.  I suppose as long as I like it, that’s really all that matters.  But if you think it’s too garish, let me know Ciao.