Jefe's House

Originally posted 3/17/10 by Jefe Von Stanley on MediaElites.com.

UPDATE 8/12/10:  Well, it’s only taken 5 months but finally David W. Johnson, one of Gov. Paterson’s closest aides,  has been charged with misdemeanor assault.

Dear New Yorkers,

I have made clear throughout the fiscal crisis that despite our financial difficulties, New York will not shirk from the most fundamental of government obligations – the protection of its citizenry and of its communities [except for abused women]. With that in mind, I would like to inform you of an important new initiative I signed and enacted into law that will enable you to automatically receive an alert when a moderate or high-risk sex offender moves into an area of interest to you or your family, NY-ALERT [it will not include a Johnson Alert for men who have "a history of altercations with women."]

Another top Paterson Aide, Marissa Shorenstein, resigns. New York Times, 3/17/10.

Through this new service, you can be notified by e-mail, text message, fax or telephone when a sex offender [but not a girlfriend beater] moves into or out of your community, or even when an offender relocates within a certain radius (from a quarter mile to 25 miles) of your home [except for David W. Johnson, and believe me ladies, you definitely don't want to be living within 25 miles of him but hey what are you gonna do?]

Continued at http://mediaelites.com/2010/03/18/misogynist-gov-desperate-to-save-rep-in-history-books

Originally posted 3/16/10 by Jefe Von Stanley on MediaElites.com.  *UPDATE 7/26/10:  When I first posted this, some took issue with my use of the word “paramilitary” to describe US Special Forces in Afghanistan.  Well, just 4 months later the infamous Afghanistan archive has been leaked by Wiki-leaks, and lo and behold, the summary of its contents according to the New York Times includes the fact that “the Central Intelligence Agency has expanded paramilitary operations inside Afghanistan.”  The AP also tells us this week that ”some American military commando operations may have amounted to war crimes.”]  Happy now?  I rest my case.

 No question, now, what had happened to the faces of the pigs. The creatures outside looked from pig to man, and from man to pig, and from pig to man again; but already it was impossible to say which was which.

Except that one’s a “reign of terror” and the other’s just a li’l misunderstanding. But you know I would never make an incendiary remark, so you decide whether US Special Forces often operate an awful lot like Bosnian Serb paramilitaries* in the 1990s when it comes to their regard for the Muslim civilian populace.

New York Times, 3/16/10
Special Operations forces have been responsible for a large number of the civilian casualties in Afghanistan and operate by their own rules…These special forces were not accountable to anyone in the country… Last year…there were 596 civilian deaths attributed to coalition forces, according to United Nations figures. Afghan and United Nations officials blame Special Operations troops for most of those deaths.

“In most of the cases of civilian casualties, special forces are involved,” said Mohammed Iqbal Safi, head of the defense committee in the Afghan Parliament.

“These forces often operate with little or no accountability and exacerbate the anger and resentment felt by communities,” the Human Rights Office of the United Nations Assistance Mission in Afghanistan wrote in its report on protection of civilians for 2009. [No UN charges have been brought against any US military personnel because they apologized, and therefore they're not guilty.]

UN News Centre, 7/23/07
The International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) has decided that, in the interest of justice, two Bosnian Serb paramilitaries charged with multiple crimes…will be tried jointly [at the Hague].

Continued at http://mediaelites.com/2010/03/16/muslims-screwed-again-us-paramilitaries-ordered-to-stand-in-corner .

Originally posted 3/12/10 by jefevonstanley on MediaElites.com.

 Fellow New Yorker:

Originally posted 3/10/10 by jefevonstanley on MediaElites.com.

Rachel Corrie

Theatre changes nothing, but at least it changes that. The BBC reports that the Rachel Corrie murder trial is finally underway in Israel. Well, okay, it’s a civil suit but still. Never heard of her?

Seven years ago, idealistic human rights activist Rachel Corrie, a Seattle native, was killed by an Israeli bulldozer on the Gaza Strip. Four years ago this month, the US premiere of the play based on Corrie’s poignant if naive political and philosophical ruminations, My Name is Rachel Corrie, was canceled by New York Theatre Workshop. The play, pieced together by actor Alan “Severus Snape” Rickman and Guardian editor Katharine Viner, had had a successful run in London in 2005.

NYTW’s PR nightmare began when conflicting reasons were given for the cancellation. Had they merely postponed it due to scheduling difficulties, or was it canceled because they’d consulted with New York City religious leaders who’d insisted the play was anti-Semitic and incendiary so they chickened out of premiering it? Hard to believe; after all, this was the organization that brought us Shopping and Fucking. Then again that play featured Philip Seymour Hoffman, so if he was bugged by the cancellation (see below) then maybe something was up after all. 

Continued here – http://mediaelites.com/2010/03/10/rachel-corries-ghost-gets-her-day-in-court.

Originally posted 3/4/10 by jefevonstanley on MediaElites.com.

Mark Stansberry's hoping Puddin can bring home the bacon.

So I’m on the 3 train yesterday morning creeping towards Brooklyn when a guy comes on around Chambers Street with, “Excuse me ladies and gentlemen…” which I would have immediately tuned out except he was right in front of me. Turns out he’s not soliciting donations nor is he part of a haggard, hat-passing do-wop quartet. He’s an animator and filmmaker. No wonder he’s broke.

He explains that he’s created a “kid and family friendly” cartoon called Puddin, (“Pictured here,” he said, gesturing grandly to his professionally silk-screened Puddin t-shirt), about a little girl growing up in Brooklyn in the early ’70s. He’s got a duffle bag full of DVDs containing six brief episodes, “and these are not flash animations, these are not computer generated, they are hand drawn by my colleagues and me. Over 25,000 hand drawings…” This filmmaker-huckster’s name is Mark Stansberry.

Long story short I dug up a Washington and bought one of the Stansberry-autographed Ghett-O-Gram Films (yes) discs and checked it out.  Continued at http://mediaelites.com/2010/03/04/roll-over-fat-albert-tell-charlie-brown-the-news-70s-rb-meets-childrens-animation-in-puddin/