Richard Pryor R.I.P.

The greatest comedian of all-time passes on.

LOS ANGELES — Richard Pryor, the groundbreaking comedian whose profanely personal insights into race relations and modern life made him one of Hollywood's biggest stars, died of a heart attack Saturday. He was 65.

Pryor died shortly before 8 a.m. after being taken to a hospital from his home in the San Fernando Valley, said his business manager, Karen Finch. He had been ill for years with multiple sclerosis, a degenerative disease of the nervous system.

Music producer Quincy Jones described Pryor as a true pioneer of his art.

"He was the Charlie Parker of comedy, a master of telling the truth that influenced every comedian that came after him," Jones said in a statement. "The legacy that he leaves will forever be with us."

Richard Pryor was truly a legend and an inspiration to many of the great comedians today. He was one of the few comedians capable of combining political satire with humor. His 1974 album That Nigger's Crazy is an epic and one of the funniest things I've ever heard in my life. While his movie career has been hit and miss, his concert films were great and his teamup with Sidney Poitier in Uptown Saturday Night was classic. I loved The Bingo Long Traveling All-Stars and Harlem Nights, too.

He'll be missed.

CIA Receptionist Valerie Plame Is Quitting Day Job

From WaPo.com:

WASHINGTON - This was the last day of work at the C-I-A for the officer whose exposure led to a criminal investigation in the Bush White House.

Two people who have known Valerie Plame for years say today was her last day with the C-I-A. Neither the agency nor Plame's husband has confirmed that. Plame is married to Bush administration critic and former U-S Ambassador Joseph Wilson.

Plame had served for years at overseas jobs. Her employment was classified until disclosed by conservative columnist Robert Novak. The investigation that followed led to the indictment of Vice President Cheney's former chief of staff, Lewis Libby.

Amazed is how I still feel about all the hubbub made over this woman. A woman who was essentially nothing but a highly paid receptionist for the country's intelligence agency. That said, regardless if anyone really "outed" Valerie Plame, who cares? She did nothing for the CIA anyway, thereby negating any "secret agent" status or any lawbreaking or otherwise on the part of Karl Rove or any of his associates. In between answering phones she even spent a fair amount of time referring to Ambassador Joe Wilson, as "Clown Wilson" and the fact that her "cover" has long been blown did nothing to endanger our nation's security. Yet, for the Left, Plame is just another example of how desperate they are to hurt George W. Bush. And for what? Because an intern nearly brought down Clinton, they gotta get even by using a receptionist to bring down Bush?

The reality is that Valerie Plame has been used. She's been nothing but a smokescreen for the insane hatred the Left has for our President. And what did they get for all their trouble? The Vice President's chief-of-staff?

Big deal.

In fact, if Marc Rich can be pardoned so too should "Scooter" Libby, that's if he's actually found guilty of anything which he shouldn't be. In truth, the hope here is that now that Valerie Plame is finally quitting her highly-paid receptionist job, maybe, just maybe she'll see the light. Maybe she'll see that her husband, a liar, a con artist, a media hog and a longtime Bush antagonist, used her just as much as the Left has. Then too, if she's smart like Hillary maybe she'll score some cash with a book deal talking about all her "troubles", but go away never to be heard from again.

Now that would be nice.

Midweek Potpourri

"You're Stupider Than I Am..."

In the face of liberals behaving like the lunatics they are, Ann Coulter stands her ground and tells University of Connecticut students to stick it.

Sister Toldjah! makes an excellent point about the liberal bias provided by CNN surrounding this story.






Mel Gibson for Governor of California??? Is the GOP serious or is this just payback for some of Arnold Schwarzennegger's recent head-scratching decisions?

Get the Desert Camouflage Hat!

NOW HEAR THIS!!! Muhammad Ali's daughter, boxing champion Laila Ali, IS NOT GAY!!!

Patriot Act Gets Extended. It's about time.

Linkage: Cal Uhman's Where HipHop and Libertarianism Meet has become a personal fave. Check It Out!

Miss Chatterbox has a great piece on human trafficking and how you can get involved.

- from ReutersL Useless Christmas Gifts!

Send Saddam To Hell. Sounds pretty appropriate to me.

Democrats Fear Backlash at Polls For Antiwar Remarks. Maybe next year the Dems will find out just how dangerous Howard Dean is to our party.

BLOGROLL: Martin Musings on the war against fruitcakes.

Mahndisa takes on the circumstances surrounding petty bloggers.

New feature: "Midweek Potpourri"

Starting today, once a week, I'll be featuring news, recaps and commentary from a conservative perspective in a column I'm calling "Midweek Potpourri".

Your feedback and participation is appreciated!

Celebrities Are Idiots #2: Howard Stern

Shock jock Howard Stern, a man who has made millions exploiting misfits and idiots, has a solution to our country's problem's in Iraq.

From Esquire magazine:

"We give Saddam Hussein a nice shave, hand him back his old uniform, and put him back in office. Let him tame the fucking place. We need this guy. He's the only one who can calm everybody down. Who else is going to do that? This guy was unbelievable. Sure, he to zap a few guys on their [testicles] to get them in line, but, man, look at what he did. he was no problem. In fact, he kept the Iranians at bay. he helped keep the balance over there. He was more afraid of the Taliban than we are."

Of course Stern forgot the parts about Saddam being an evil dictator who killed hundreds of thousands of his own people and was plotting to acquire WMD's before we captured him, but what does all that matter?

Thank goodness the FCC finally got rid of Stern's tired act.

"Tookie" Death Penalty Zealots Hungry For The Kill

"Kill Tookie!"

"Let Tookie Fry!"

"Die! Die! Die!"

Judging from the sentiments being expressed by conservatives, if the upcoming possible execution of Tookie Williams' were to be made into a public event, it'd make millions. It would sell out in hours with huge crowds and standing-room only. No doubt that scalpers would make a ton of loot too. No doubt noted boxing boxing promoter and unashamed capitalist Don King would be somewhere in the midst trying to make a buck. Oh, what a grand day it would be!

And why not?

After all, That's how much of a spectacle Williams' has become and the scenario is apt for a conservative movement that wants Tookie Williams head on a platter for all to pass around and see.

And in their haste to see Tookie Williams dead conservatives have even resorted to acting like liberals. Really. They've used smear tactics to attack the Left's support of Williams', they've made up ridiculous arguments comparing Williams gang the Crips to the KKK, they've ignored the facts that the death is not a detterent to crime, that it is barbaric, that it has killed the innocent and that it is blatantly anti-God. They've done all of this under the guise that since Tookie Williams had no mercy on the 4 people he killed, then society should have no mercy on Tookie Williams.

But is all this hatred for Tookie really about the victims?

Because in most of the "Kill Tookie" tirades I've seen and read, the victims are barely mentioned and when they are they seem to be an afterthought.

Personally, I think its the Left's public support of Tookie Williams that has conservatives so bent out-of-shape. Like the celebrities that have come out from their mansions to support Tookie. some even going so far as to wishing that Williams is granted clemency. And of course, since the Left is always wrong, we conservatives must step up and defend ourselves. Nevermind, in this case, the victims, nevermind the fallacies of the death penalty, nevermind that only one family member of the victims has gone public with wanting Tookie Williams dead.

But when you're a conservative hypocrite, stuff like stone-cold facts are better left to be tucked in and dealt with later. Especially when you got another execution to take care of.

Yet again, this isn't about the victims.

The "Kill Tookie" circus is about a bunch of arbitrary death zealots who believe in applying "an eye for eye" when it comes to death, but not other crimes. The "Kill Tookie" circus is about a bunch of death zealots who ignore the poverty, despair and peer pressure that makes many kids join gangs. And the ignorance doesn't stop there.

They ignore that since 1973, according to the Washington-based Death Penalty Information Center, 122 people have been released from Death Row after evidence, increasingly DNA-based, exonerated them. Six of those exonerations occurred just last year. Illinois has gone from a moratorium to a complete clearing of Death Row. Since resuming capital punishment in 1977, Illinois has executed 12 -- but has seen 13 who were sentenced to die later exonerated, often with little time to spare. Even the death penalty zealots should be able to concur that where death is the outcome, that's an unacceptable error rate.

Conservatives are, for all intents and purposes, pro-life. Yet the death zealots refuse to see or note their own contradictions regarding the gift of life. Please tell me how a person who supports the death penalty because they feel that a person deserves to die is any different from a mother who aborts a baby because she feels that a baby shouldn't live because they will born with say, Down's Syndrome? The gift of life is not limited to the deserving. If so, there might only be a few thousand people deserving enough to live on the whole planet, including conservatives.

I dont care what the idiot celebrities think. I don't care about the books that Tookie williams has written. I don't care about who Tookie Williams has inspired to leave gangs. Tookie Williams was convicted of murder and for that he should rot in jail for the rest of his life. If Arnold Schwarzengger is a just man, if he's a man who follows his conscious, if he's a man who stands on principle, then he'd know that because the death penalty is wrong, even a scumbag like Tookie Williams should be able to live.

Liberal Judge Shows Her Ass

Massachusetts' Chief Justice Margaret Marshall, that noted interpreter of the Constitution, who in 2003 led the way for Massachusetts to become the only state to legalize gay marriages, recently proved again that she's nothing but a partisan hack for leftwing self-interests.

From Boston Herald.com:

Supreme Judicial Court Chief Justice Margaret Marshall publicly apologized yesterday for making an off-the-cuff and - politically speaking, at least - off-color joke about “red states” during a commencement speech in May.
The Judicial Conduct Commission investigated Marshall after a complaint was made by an unidentified Bay State resident “intimately involved in the political process,” said one source familiar with the probe.
Marshall has become a controversial political figure, particularly with the anti-gay-marriage movement, because she authored the SJC’s ruling legalizing homosexual marriage in 2003.
JCC executive director Jill Pearson said she could not divulge the name of the complainant, who contacted the commission after Marshall’s May 22 graduation speech at Brandeis University.
The complainant did not attend the speech, Pearson added.
The speech began with Marshall greeting the audience, acknowledging the hundreds of blue and white balloons at the ceremony and joking: “No red states here.”
Marshall said in her apology released by the JCC yesterday: “The comment was an unconsidered, spontaneous attempt to connect with the exuberant, celebratory feeling in the audience, reflecting the ballons I had seen. I did not intend to say anything of a political nature . . . I regretted the comment as soon as I said it, and that has never waned.”

Judges like Margaret Marshall need to be removed from the bench. When a judge makes a public statement that clearly establishes their disdain for a poltical party, it clearly sends a message that said judge is partisan and thus, cannot fairly dictate law. And any judge who could so grossly ignore the Constitution as Marshall did with her gay marriage ruling, should not only be off the bench, they should have their law license revoked.