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Reaching for Oscar

Volume VII, No. 2
Posted on Tuesday January 17, 2006

Reaching for Oscar

“Paradise Now,” the haunting thriller of friends who become suicide bombers, won the Golden Globe for Best Foreign Language Film. Director Hany Abu Assad thanked the Hollywood Foreign Press Association (HFPA) for what he deemed acknowledgment that, “Palestinians deserve their liberty and equality unconditionally.” Overall, the HFPA was kind to politically themed nominees. Other winners included George Clooney for his role as a CIA agent in “Syriana,” Rachel Weisz in the political thriller “The Constant Gardener,” and Geena Davis as President in “Commander in Chief.” “Paradise Now” is also Palestine’s submission for the Academy Awards, whose nominees will be announced January 31.

While You Were Sleeping…

Conventional wisdom says that not much happens in Washington the week between Christmas and New Years. While most news outlets were preparing their “top ten” lists for 2005, the White House released a largely ignored “signing statement” which included language on Senator John McCain’s (R-AZ) torture ban. The statement outlines the executive’s interpretation of law, which in this case states that, because of his role as Commander in Chief, the President considers the ban “advisory.” The White House opposed the bill for months, even threatening a veto, but relented after failing to persuade veto-proof majorities in both houses of Congress. In another possible back-door maneuver, the law requires military personnel to follow rules laid out in the Army Field Manual. Surprisingly enough, the Field Manual’s newest edition includes 10 new, classified pages. Paul Rieckhoff, Executive Director of Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America sounds off: “Apparently I can’t say this enough: It puts our troops in danger when the President takes anything less than an unequivocal stand against the use of torture. Period.”

With Friends Like These…

Christian evangelist Pat Robertson has apologized for his recent crude remarks ascribing Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon’s brain hemorrhage as punishment for “dividing God’s land.” The apology came after Israel’s tourism minister announced Robertson as persona non grata. Robertson had been a leader in planning a $50 million Christian Heritage Center in Galilee. A tourism ministry spokesman confirmed that the evangelical mothership would still be built. “We will do business with other evangelical leaders, friends of Israel, but not with him.” Vanity Fair reporter Craig Unger recently accompanied leading evangelical leaders, these so-called friends of Israel, on a tour of the Holy Land. In his report he explains, “To evangelical Christians, the [Temple] Mount [in Jerusalem] is an elemental part of messianic theology, because a complete restoration of the nation of Israel…is a prerequisite to the Second Coming of Christ.” This event, referred to as the Rapture, doesn’t have a happy ending for “non-believers.” With friends like these, who needs enemies?

♫ “Oh, I Wish That I Was Congressman Weiner, That Is Who I’d Really Like To Be. Cause If I Were Congressman Weiner, I Would Be So In Love With Me”♫

Every few months, Congressman Anthony Weiner’s (D-NY) infinite concern for Middle East peace rears its ugly head. In July, he tried to close the Arab Bank’s Manhattan office. In April, he attempted to do the same to the PLO Mission. Weiner has started the New Year with a “dear colleague” letter asking members to ban aid to the Palestinian Authority (PA) if Hamas wins a majority of seats in upcoming parliamentary elections. As a matter of policy, the US only gives money directly to the PA if the President signs a waiver. In essence, Weiner has taken the complex issue of Palestinian elections, including the participation of Hamas and voting rights in Jerusalem, and used it as an opportunity to grandstand. We’ve come to expect nothing less.

If Muhammad Won’t Come to the Mountain…

The UAE’s gigantic, new Mall of the Emirates is really just a typical shopping center. It has boutiques, a multiplex, deluxe hotel, and…an indoor ski resort. That’s right. “Ski Dubai, a man-made mountain scene as big as three football fields that can hold up to 1,500 visitors, will have five slopes of different degrees of difficulty, the longest being 400 meters…” reports Agence France Presse. Locals, many of whom are seeing snow for the first time, are taking to the slopes. “I am now rushing to take a skiing lesson before heading back to a business meeting,” said one Emirati.