Beatles "reunion" very inclusive, but no Pete Best

Also posted at Pajamas Media.

The extended family of the Fab Four doesn't get together very often--especially in public--but such an event occurred Friday night at the Mirage Hotel in Las Vegas.

The opening night of the new Cirque du Soleil show "Love" was the occasion that brought Ringo Starr and Paul McCartney to the theatre that previously hosted the Siegried & Roy show. The new "Love" show features the acrobatic troupe performing to Beatles music.

Ringo and Paul being together is not big news, with the exception of one 1970 shouting match that led McCartney to kick the affable Richard Starkey out of his home, the two have always gotten along, and have played on each other's solo albums.

It's the other guests that makes this an intriguing story. And yes, they got together for a post-show bash.

John Lennon's widow, Yoko Ono was in attendance. Despite denials on both sides, Paul and Yoko don't like each other. Cynthia Lennon, John's first wife was also there, along with Julian, the only child from their marriage. After her 1968 divorce from John, Cynthia was cut off from Beatle-dom, and Julian was essentially cut off from John. (Yoko got the blame for that--although even while he was married to "Cyn," John was by all accounts an absentee father to Julian.)

Who else? John Eastman, brother of Paul's late wife Linda Eastman--and the man who tried in 1969 to have the Eastman family manage the Beatles--was at Paul's side that night. (The three other Beatles preferred Allen Klein.) Acclaimed music producer Peter Asher, brother of Paul's onetime fiance Jane Asher--was there.

George Harrison's widow, Olivia, and Ringo's wife Barbara Bach were on hand, too, as well as former Apple mates Neil Aspinall and Jonathan Clyde. Legendary sitar musician Ravi Shankar, a mentor to George, made it into the "Love" fest.

Here are the rest of the famous guests, courtesy of Fox News.com

After all, one of his heroes, Brian Wilson of the Beach Boys, had been in the audience along with actress Helen Mirren and husband, director Taylor Hackford, plus Edgar Winter, Sheila E. and Colin Hay (all touring with Ringo in his band), Electric Light Orchestra guru Jeff Lynne, songwriter Stephen Bishop, producer Russ Titelman, Barbara Orbison (widow of Roy), Little Steven van Zandt with wife, Maureen, actor Jason Patric, director Gus van Sant and, improbably, billionaire Ron Burkle.

Oh, the Hendersons were also there, late of Pablo Fanques Fair....(Just kidding on that last one.)

But no Pete Best. Ringo's predecessor as Bealtes' drummer, Best was fired by his bandmates in the summer of 1962--but the dirty work was carried out by manager Brian Epstein. Pete, who still lives in Liverpool, has not layed eyes on a live Beatle--or former Beatle--since shortly before that fateful meeting with Epstein.

C'mon Paul, the "Love" party would've been the perfect occasion to "Get Back" with Pete.

Technorati tags: Beatles Rock Music Entertainment Las Vegas Cirque du Soleil Pete Best Paul McCartney

Blago blogging: Illinois' vulnerable incumbent governor

Democrat Rod Blagojevich's successful 2002 campaign for governor was built on the promise of ending "business as usual" in Illinois. His predecessor, Republican George Ryan chose not to run for re-election that year. Various scandals dominated Ryan's single term as chief executive of the nation's fifth-most populous state. The Democrats were handed a golden opportunity win back the governor's office after 26 years of Republican rule.

After three-and-a-half years as governor, Illinoisans are figuring out that Blago's promise of ending "business as usual" meant that the Land of Lincoln would become more corrupt. Luckily, residents of Illinois can do something about it: Blagojevich is up for re-election in four months.

Very bad news hit Blagojevich recently.

From today's Chicago Tribune--free registration may be required:

Nearly two years ago, Gov. Rod Blagojevich's inspector general issued a searing confidential rebuke that called the governor's patronage office "the real machine driving hiring" in one state agency for jobs that were supposed to be free of political influence.

The investigation concluded "the governor's office improperly exercised a great deal, if not all, control over the hiring" at the Illinois Department of Employment Security since shortly after the Democratic governor took office in January 2003.

The report said Blagojevich's patronage office--known formally as the governor's Office of Intergovernmental Affairs--played a key role with compliant agency officials in subverting state laws that give veterans a preference in getting state employment and ban political considerations in hiring for most state jobs.

"This effort reflects not merely an ignorance of the law, but complete and utter contempt for the law," wrote Zaldwaynaka "Z." Scott, who served as Blagojevich's first executive inspector general under an ethics law he signed. Scott, who left the post to join a private law firm last year, said she could not comment on her report.

And from the Daily Herald, which describes the unwelcome "Fitzmas" present that was dropped on the governor's doorstep late last week:

Back in October 1998, then-U.S. Attorney Scott Lassar took the extraordinary step of announcing that Republican governor candidate George Ryan was not a target of his just-begun probe into license-selling in the secretary of state's office.

Ryan's reprieve, however temporary, deflated the campaign of Democrat Glenn Poshard and paved the way for Ryan's narrow victory.

Nearly eight years later, current U.S. Attorney Patrick Fitzgerald's decision to send a letter confirming a widespread criminal probe into hiring fraud allegations in Democratic Gov. Rod Blagojevich's administration could have the exact opposite effect on the governor's race, political analysts say. The major development comes little more than four months before Blagojevich stands for re-election against Republican Treasurer Judy Baar Topinka.

"This does the inverse (of Ryan-Poshard). This gives Topinka something very tangible to point to," said Cindi Canary, director of the nonpartisan Illinois Campaign for Political Reform, who adds that Fitzgerald tends to "build his investigations and work on his own time. He's not particularly concerned with the calendar of the election cycle."

Blagojevich has a ton of money in his political fund, his Republican opponent has very little, although President Bush is coming to Chicago Friday for a Topinka fundraiser.

A few months ago, despite the drip-drip-drip of assorted charges of corruption against the Blagovevich administration, Rod's odds of winning a second-term looked darn good.

Now the momentum is swinging towards Topinka.

Technorati tags: illinois politics judy baar topinka democrats Politics Republicans corruption elections Fitzmas Patrick Fitzgerald

Roger Ebert has emergency surgery

Pulitzer Prize winning film critic Roger Ebert of the Chicago Sun-Times and the television show "Ebert and Roeper" underwent emergency cancer surgery earlier today.

From the Sun-Times web site:

Chicago Sun-Times movie critic Roger Ebert was in serious condition at Northwestern Memorial Hospital Sunday following an emergency operation to repair complications from an earlier cancer surgery.

Ebert's vital signs appeared to be good after the hours-long operation, said Sun-Times columnist Richard Roeper, co-host of the "Ebert & Roeper" movie review show.

On June 16, Ebert underwent surgery to remove a cancerous growth on his salivary gland. Around 8 p.m. Saturday, a blood vessel burst near the site of the operation.

Ebert, 64, has had four cancer surgeries, including two on his salivary gland in 2003.

Here's hoping for a quick recovery for Roger.

Technorati tags: Roger Ebert Movies Television News Chicago Newspapers Journalism

Steyn skewers SCOTUS on Hamdan decision

Mark Steyn's latest column is another gem, as he takes on the Supreme Court, specifically the Hamdan v. Rumsfeld case.

There are several ways to fight a war. On the one hand, you can put on a uniform, climb into a tank, rumble across a field and fire on the other fellows' tank. On the other, you can find a 12-year-old girl, persuade her to try on your new suicide-bomber belt and send her waddling off into the nearest pizza parlor.

The Geneva Conventions were designed to encourage the former and discourage the latter. The thinking behind them was that, if one had to have wars, it's best if they're fought by soldiers and armies. In return for having a rank and serial number and dressing the part, you'll be treated as a lawful combatant should you fall into the hands of the other side. There'll always be a bit of skulking around in street garb among civilian populations, but the idea was to ensure that it would not be rewarded --that there would, in fact, be a downside for going that route.

The U.S. Supreme Court has now blown a hole in the animating principle behind the Geneva Conventions by choosing to elevate an enemy that disdains the laws of war in order to facilitate the bombing of civilian targets and the beheading of individuals. The argument made by Justice John Paul Stevens is an Alice-In-Jihadland ruling that stands the Conventions on their head in order to give words the precise opposite of their plain meaning and intent. The same kind of inspired jurisprudence conjuring trick that detected in the emanations of the penumbra how the Framers of the U..S Constitution cannily anticipated a need for partial-birth abortion and gay marriage has now effectively found a right to jihad -- or, if you're a
female suicide bomber about to board an Israeli bus, a woman's right to Jews.

You gotta fight--or sue--for your right to jihad.

Alleged sexual assault on set of Australian version of "Big Brother"

The danger of Reality TV is that the dark side of human nature can be set loose. And that appears to have happened in Australia on that nation's version of "Big Brother."

From News.com Australia:

Two Big Brother housemates have been removed from the set of the reality TV show after an alleged incident of sexual assault of a female contestant.

Secretary of the Victorian Family Council Bill Muehlenberg said he was not surprised to hear of the alleged assault.

"When you have a provocative setting with sexually-charged young people and ply them with all the alcohol they can drink, you can't be surprised this could happen," Mr Muehlenberg said.

He said the show should be axed immediately in the wake of the incident but he believed some at Channel 10 would be "rubbing their hands in glee" at the publicity it would generate.

Producers of the show have admitted two male contestants were kicked out of the Big Brother house for "a breach of the rules."

Technorati tags: Big Brother Reality TV Television Australia crime

Chicago Crosstown Classic: Cub fans pelt field with garbage after Pierzynski homer

The Chicago White Sox are the defending World Series champions. The Chicago Cubs, meanwhile, haven't won baseball's big prize since the year William Howard Taft was elected--that was in 1908.

The second round of the 2006 Crosstown Classic is taking place this weekend in Chicago. In May, the White Sox won two of three on the South Side. That series was marred by Cubs catcher Michael Barrett punching Sox catcher A.J. Pierzynski in the jaw. That brutality earned Barrett a ten-game suspension, and made Pierzynski public enemy #1 among Cubs fans.

This weekend, the Sox are visiting Wrigley Field, home of baseball's "lovable losers." The White Sox won yesterday and the Cubs were one out away from beating their American League counterparts this afternoon, when who else but A.J Pierzynski hit a three-run home run that ended up being the game-winner.

A.J. had a good game on the field, too. He threw out two Cubs base runners.

The Pierzynski homer was too much to stomach for many Cubbie fans, as they tossed all types of garbage on the field after the four-bagger, delaying play for five minutes while the Wrigley Field ground crew picked up the mess from the angry fans.

Technorati tags: Baseball MLB White Sox Cubs Crosstown Classic sports Chicago White Sox Pierzynski

Brainster makes it into a book

Very good friend-of-the-blog Pat Curley of Brainster has made it into Marshall University Professor Stephen D. Cooper's new book, Watching the Watchdog: Bloggers As the Fifth Estate. Amazon says it hasn't been released yet, but you can pre-order it here.

Pat caught New York Times columnist Paul Krugman playing loose with the facts in a column about the 2004 Ohio presidential returns. And that caught the attention of Professor Cooper.

Technorati tags: books Krugman Paul Krugman blogging Media MSM New York Times

Moron Norman Finkelstein and DePaul

McKreck over at Occidentality came across this a transcript from MEMRI TV from a Norman Finkelstein appearance on Lebanese TV.

I'm sure Norman's appearance drew in big ratings for that TV show, but if it didn't, the network, New TV, will surely re-run it, since the word-of-mouth about it will be quite favorable.

Finkelstein may not be a holocaust-denier as his legions of critics claim, but he's definitely a holocaust-minimizer.

Here is the entire posting courtesy of MEMRI.

Following are excerpts from an interview with Norman Finkelstein, author of The Holocaust Industry, which aired on New TV on June 21, 2006.

Report: The "Holocaust" is the Jewish term for burning the sacrificial offering to ashes. Never has there been an issue subject to as many contradictions, lies, and exaggerations regarding the number of victims as the issue of the Jewish Holocaust. The number of people killed in the Holocaust was estimated in the film "Night and Fog," by the French director Alain Resnais, to be between eight and nine million, on the basis of documents invented by the Jews. The number dropped to four million Jews in the Soviet report to the Nuremburg trials. The figure dropped further, to 300,000 victims, according to British historian David Irving, and reached only 50,000, according to Raul Hilberg the Jew.

(My note: Irving is a thoroughly discredited "historian" and a noted Holocaust-denier. Although I haven't read Hilberg's book, The Destruction of the European Jews, I find it impossible believe that he claims just 50,000 Jews were killed in the Holocaust. To be fair to Finkelstein, Hilberg has praised portions of Norman's work.)

Given the statistical contradictions in the number of Holocaust victims, the French intellectual Roger Garaudy asks how the truth can be determined. The Holocaust Industry, by Dr. Norman Finkelstein, recounts how the Jews of the world have turned Jewish suffering at the hands of the Nazis into a political and ideological industry in order to garner support for Israel, and into a source of economic extortion, which yielded inconceivable sums for the Jews and their organizations, using as a pretext the so-called victims of the Nazi annihilation operations.

[...]

Norman Finkelstein: The main reason I wrote the book is because I thought that the Nazi Holocaust was being exploited by Israel and its supporters in the United States against the Palestinians and against basic principles of justice. That is, the Nazi Holocaust is being used as a political weapon in order to silence criticism of Israeli policies in the occupied territories.

There are also other reasons for writing the book. Obviously, there was a personal reason - namely, my parents passed through the Nazi Holocaust. Every member of their families was exterminated during the war, and I felt it was important to accurately represent what happened to them during the Nazi Holocaust.

[...]

My book is mostly about the misuse or exploitation of the Nazi Holocaust for political purposes. The main claims I make in the book are, first of all, that this notion of Holocaust uniqueness - that is, no group of people in the history of human kind has suffered the way Jews have suffered.

This notion of Holocaust uniqueness has no basis in historical fact and is an immoral doctrine, because it ranks human suffering, saying some suffering is better and some suffering is worse. The main purpose of this claim of Holocaust uniqueness is to immunize Israel, protect Israel, from criticism.

[...]

Well, one of the points I tried to make in the book is that there has been a gross inflation of the number of survivors of the Nazi Holocaust. In fact, as all the historians have shown, Hitler's extermination of the Jews was very efficient. It was like a factory, an assembly line. Jews were processed to be murdered. When you have such an efficient system there can't be very many survivors. In fact, the best estimates show that by May 1945, that is, at the end of World War II, about 100,000 Jews had survived the death camps, the ghettos, and the labor camps. If 100,000 Jews survived the camps and ghettos in 1945, then 60 years later - that is, roughly around now - there can't be more than a few thousands survivors still alive.

But the Holocaust industry wanted to blackmail Europe in order to get compensation moneys. And in order to blackmail Europe they said there were hundreds of thousands of needy Holocaust victims who were still alive, and they started to inflate the number of survivors in order to blackmail Europe.

[...]

I do not believe that the Nazi Holocaust is unique, and I do not believe that the suffering of Jews is unique. I think there is no basis in the historical argument for the uniqueness of the Nazi Holocaust. There are aspects, features, of the Nazi Holocaust which are unique, just as there are aspects and features of other genocides that are unique, but that does not mean that the Nazi Holocaust belongs in another category, apart from all the other sufferings in the history of humankind. I do not agree with that.

On a moral level, it's simply an abomination to rank suffering, and say one people has suffered more than another. How can you say it is more painful to die in a gas chamber than it is to die when your flesh is incinerated by Napalm? Who is to decide which is a more painful suffering? That, I think, is absurd.

[...]

And there is something wrong when the United States has a museum devoted to what Germany did to the Jews, but it does not have a museum devoted to what America did to its native population - the expulsion and extermination of the native Americans. It does not have a museum devoted to what was done to Africans brought over here as slaves, yet it has a museum about what happened in Europe. What would Americans think if Germany, in its capital, were to create a museum commemorating slavery in the United States, commemorating the extermination of native Americans, but no museum devoted to the Nazi Holocaust? Of course, Americans would say that's pure hypocrisy. Well, we are now guilty of the same hypocrisy.

[...]

There is no evidence at all that Swiss banks ever kept billions of dollars that belonged to Jews during World War II or before World War II. The basic facts are as follows: Number one, most Jews before World War II were very very poor. They lived in little villages in Eastern Europe. The villages were called shtetls. They were little villages in Russia and in Poland. Most Jews were poor.

Number two, beginning in the early 1930's, there was a worldwide depression, which means even if you had money, you lost it during the depression.

And number three, if you had the money, and you were... and you kept the money, then you managed to escape during the Nazi Holocaust. That's one of the advantages to being rich. You have enough money to buy your way out.

So those Jews who had money and kept it after the depression; they used the money to get out, and then they withdrew their money from the banks after the war.

DePaul was fully aware of Finkelstein's reputation as a resident of the lunatic fringe within academia (and that's pretty loony) when they hired him as an assistant professor of political science in 2003. Yes, this is the same DePaul that fired pro-Israel Thomas Klocek, a pro-Israel professor who had the guts to confront some Muslim students handing out Rachel Corrie flyers at the Chicago school a year after Finkelstein's arrival at the Chicago Catholic university.

Technorati tags: Illinois Chicago DePaul Academic freedom Free Speech Thomas Klocek Israel Middle East Catholic holocaust holocaust denial david irving norman finkelstein

Rachel Corrie play comes to New York

Pat at Brainster is doing a superb job keeping an eye on the post-death career of International Solidarity Movement activist Rachel Corrie.

In 2003, Corrie refused to get out of the way of a Caterpillar D-9 bulldozer in Gaza that was demolishing a home that was doubling as a weapons warehouse.

Her death was a tragic accident, the terrorist-apologizing far-left has adopted her as a martyr.

From Pat's blog:

Rachel Corrie's play is now appearing in New York.

After the New York Theater Workshop had the good taste to back away from staging "My Name is Rachel Corrie" a few months ago, the British production has moved to New York's Minetta Lane Theater for a one-month run starting October 15th.

I love this editorial comment:

According to Corrie's aunt Cheryl Broderson, the family is "absolutely ecstatic" that the play will be seen in New York.

As am I, since I adore English comedy. I mean, let's be honest: I've seen how slowly a bulldozer moves. There's a lot of construction in my neighborhood, and my dog and I had to get out of the way of one that was heading toward us. We managed to do so 16 times before it got close. In other words, in order to end up under a bulldozer, you would have to really want to be under a bulldozer. It would have to be your life's ambition to be under a bulldozer. And if that's your life's goal, there's nothing anyone can do about it. So it's a good thing that the play's intention is to be celebratory of Corrie's life: unlike most of us, she achieved her dream and died doing what she loved: being under bulldozers.

Wasn't there a bulldozer-human confrontation in that classic Brit-Comedy, A Fish Called Wanda? Could've been a steamroller, but there was one. Spoiler alert: No one got run over.

Technorati tags: Rachel Corrie British New York Theater ISM Israel

Not a Merry Fitzmas in July for Ill. Gov Rod Blagojevich

U.S. Attorney Patrick Fitzgerald's main professional focus is not the PlameGate investigation, but his duties of going after criminals in Illinois.

And he has his hands filled keeping track of the misdeeds of that "reform" Governor, Rod Blagojevich, a Chicago Democrat.

Blago is up for re-election in November, and the Ghosts of Fitzmas Past and Present will likely be on the minds of Prairie State voters on Election Day. Blagojevich's challenger is salty-tounged state treasurer Judy Baar Topinka, the state's sole statewide Republican officeholder.

Blaming Topinka for the state's financial mess, and tying her to the legacy of disgraced former Governor George Ryan are already among Blago's campaign tactics. Curiously, running on his record doesn't seem to be in the Blagojevich playbook.

And here is the Fitzmas in July bombshell for the governor, courtesy of CBS 2 Chicago:

Gov. Rod Blagojevich's administration is the focus of a year-long federal investigation into "very serious" allegations of hiring fraud, U.S. Attorney Patrick Fitzgerald said in a letter released Friday.

The memo talks of two FBI investigations now merged into one, it implicates the involvement of multiple state agencies and departments and the rigging of state employment practices to enable political hiring. Fitzgerald writes about 'having developed a number of credible witnesses' during the investigation.

His comments appear in a letter to Illinois Attorney General Lisa Madigan that Madigan's office released. The letter asks Madigan to halt her investigations into the Blagojevich administration because they might interfere with the federal probe. In dropping the investigation, Madigan said "my priority is that these matters are thoroughly and professionally investigated."

The Democratic governor, who was elected on a promise to clean up government, has not been charged with any wrongdoing. Blagojevich says his administration's hiring practices are ethical and lawful.

Blagojevich broke precedent as Illinois' CEO by not moving into the Governor's Mansion in Springfield, instead choosing to reside in his Northwest Side Chicago home.

His hesitancy in not pulling up stakes could be traced to a hidden belief inside Blagojevich's mind--that he'd be a one-term governor.

Technorati tags: corruption Blagojevich politics Fitzmas fitzgerald Patrick Fitzgerald graft governor Democrats