September 17, 2008 | 6:30 pm

Gawker’s got Sarah Palin’s personal e-mails

Posted by Brad A. Greenberg

Follow me on

From Valleywag

Somebody hacked Sarah Palin’s personal e-mail account—from which she was inappropriately doing government business—and its contents are now circulating the Internet. The group Anonymous took credit for posting screenshots of e-mail messages and photos on Wikileaks. Wired.com’s Threat Level blog reports:

The cache of stolen data contains five screenshots from Palin’s account, including the text of an e-mail exchange with Alaska Lt. Gov. Sean Parnell about his campaign for Congress.

The e-mail, a message of support to Palin, tells her not to let negative press get to her and asks Palin to pray for McCorkell, who writes that “I need strength to 1. keep employment, 2. not have to choose.”

Gawker, which appears to have gotten the story first, is absolutely blowing up right now. Aside from just how nuts it is that someone hacked the e-mail of such a high-profile figure, I don’t find the story all that interesting. The Web, though, is all a-twitter, which is where I heard the news. (Thanks, Jason Calacanis.) The McCain-Palin campaign had this to say:

“This is a shocking invasion of the Governor’s privacy and a violation of law. The matter has been turned over to the appropriate authorities and we hope that anyone in possession of these emails will destroy them. We will have no further comment.”

September 17, 2008 | 5:27 pm

Metrolink crash victim’s phone kept calling family

Posted by Brad A. Greenberg

My new local paper is the Daily Breeze, and today reporter Larry Altman wrote this eerie, and tragic, story about Friday’s Metrolink train crash that left 26 dead.

As Chuck Peck’s family waited, holding out hope he was alive in the wreckage of the Metrolink train in Chatsworth, their phones rang.

“For us, it was just hope,” said Peck’s sister Barbara Lopez of Carson. “We had no idea he had already perished.”

The amount of empty hope they must have felt is breathtaking.  Like the other stories that have emerged from the Chatsworth crash, there is a lot of grief in Peck’s. He had been living in Salt Lake City and was in town for a job interview; he was en route to his fiancee’s home in Westlake Village when steel smashed into steel.

(Hat tip: LAObserved.)

0 Comments — Leave your comment

September 17, 2008 | 4:00 pm

Hockey moms against Sarah Palin

Posted by Brad A. Greenberg

You’ve heard the chorus of opposition building. Here’s a PSA from those hockey moms who might as well have been called pigs.

(Hat tip to MZ. In other Palin-sports news, here’s footage of Sarah Palin (neé Heath) as an Alaskan sportscaster.)

1 Comments — Leave your comment

September 17, 2008 | 1:45 pm

AP discovers rabbi related to Obama

Posted by Brad A. Greenberg

“Here’s something about Barack Obama you probably didn’t know,” the American leader in turning copy quickly reported yesterday. “He’s related to a rabbi.”

OK, aside from the lameness of that lede, which just as easily could have concluded “he hates french fries,” the fact that Michelle Obama is the first cousin of a black rabbi was, in fact, well known. It was thoroughly reported by The Forward two weeks ago, and followed by many others a week later.

Somehow, it’s news again. In case you are interested in the redux on the Obamas and Rabbi Capers C. Funnye Jr, it’s after the jump. I particularly like Funnye’s description of Obama—“very caring, a little skinny and very sincere.” Funnye’s Jewish alright.

Read more of this post

0 Comments — Leave your comment

September 17, 2008 | 12:36 am

Church of England apologizes to Darwin

Posted by Brad A. Greenberg

This year marks the 150th anniversary of Charles Darwin’s “On the Origin of Species.” As if the Church of England didn’t have enough to deal with, it decided to honor Darwin for his immeasurable contribution to science and apologize for all the grief Christianity has given its 20th century scapegoat.

A whole section was added to the Church of England’s Web site to discusses the gifts of Darwin to science and, believe it or not, religion. A few words from the Rev. Malcolm Brown, Director of Mission and Public Affairs:

“Charles Darwin: 200 years from your birth, the Church of England owes you an apology for misunderstanding you and, by getting our first reaction wrong, encouraging others to misunderstand you still,” he wrote. “We try to practice the old virtues of ‘faith seeking understanding’ and hope that makes some amends. But the struggle for your reputation is not over yet, and the problem is not just your religious opponents but those who falsely claim you in support of their own interests. Good religion needs to work constructively with good science – and I dare to suggest that the opposite may be true as well.”

0 Comments — Leave your comment

September 16, 2008 | 7:16 pm

Rabbis reach out to Lehman Bros. and Wall St.

Posted by Brad A. Greenberg

Last month, Aish HaTorah was charging New York bigwigs $10,000—they call the fees “donations—for private Torah tutoring. Today they are offering free counseling to Wall Street’s former tenants.

While Merrill Lynch was saved by BofA, anybody who worked for Lehman Brothers is now out of a job. Lehman, as you may have known, was started a century and a half ago by three Jewish brothers who had just immigrated from Bavaria.

Nextbook has a short story about how Henry, Emanuel and Mayer’s business survived the Civil War. The site also has a profile of the man behind the Minsky Moment—that point in a credit cycle when spiraling debt leads to a cash-flow crisis.

The man behind this theory was Hyman Minsky, whose economic outlook was shaped by a Jewish upbringing:

Read more of this post

3 Comments — Leave your comment

September 16, 2008 | 5:45 pm

Bush Gator Palin—that’s me

Posted by Brad A. Greenberg

VideoJew sent me a fun little Sarah Palin game from Polit Tsk Tsk Tsk that reveals what my country name would be if I had been born to Sarah Palin. You ready?

Bush Gator Palin.

I love it. It’s like the name formulator knew the inner me. Much better than my mafia name (Monkey Shines Emilio) or my gangsta name (Straight Lumpynutz).

It’s also turns out, that my name and lack of qualifications might enable me to be president one day:

Yes, the American people have learned from experience that it’s not the content of your resume but the quality of your character that will make you a good president.  And with the war in Iraq, the mortgage crisis, the banks going bankrupt, China winning the Olympics, and Gossip Girl on TV, we really need a personality cult more than we need policy. Get our your life insurance, your gun, and your credit card, because we’re in for a rocky future.

1 Comments — Leave your comment

September 16, 2008 | 3:49 pm

Photographer under fire for demonizing McCain

Posted by Brad A. Greenberg

Jill Greenberg, who is not related, is under fire for portraits she shot of John McCain for the cover of The Atlantic. The photo the magazine chose was tame, but other photoshopped images on Greenberg’s site, like the one above, portray the Republican presidential candidate as demonic. There also is a really foul one that depicts a monkey urinating and defecating on McCain’s bald pate.

Jeffrey Goldberg, who wrote the accompanying story, has taken particular issue with Greenberg and reports that she was dropped by her photo agency:

The Vaughan Hannigan photo agency, which has represented the disgraced, excrement-obsessed photoshopper Jill Greenberg, has just dropped her from its client list. Bill Hannigan, who runs the agency, told me a few minutes ago that Greenberg and the agency had “different views on how to conduct business.” He said he couldn’t say anything more because he is “still sorting out some issues with Jill related to her contract.”

The most interesting element of this story is that Greenberg, who regularly shoots covers for Time, Wired, Los Angeles and Portfolio, among other magazines I get at home, is such a notable photographer.

3 Comments — Leave your comment

September 16, 2008 | 12:00 pm

Brutal honesty from a Palin supporter

Posted by Brad A. Greenberg

Ross Douthat of The Atlantic is a young, influential voice in the conservative blogosphere. He’s been an optimistic proponent of Sarah Palin. But on Saturday, after the last segment of Palin’s interview with ABC News’ Charles Gibson aired, he wrote this blog post, titled, “Sarah The Unready”:

The most that can be said in her defense is that she kept her cool and avoided any brutal gaffes; other than that, she seemed about an inch deep on every issue outside her comfort zone. Yes, the questions were tougher than the ones that a Tim Kaine or Tim Pawlenty probably would have been handed, but they were all questions that a vice-presidential nominee needs to be able to answer. And there’s no way to look at her performance as anything save supporting evidence for the non-hysterical critique of her candidacy - that it’s just too much, too soon - and a splash of cold water for those of us with high hopes for her future on the national stage.

Douthat wouldn’t agree with Matt Damon’s “bad Disney movie” assessment, but at least he’s being honest with how unprepared Palin is for the national stage.

5 Comments — Leave your comment

September 15, 2008 | 10:49 pm

When Olmert met Talansky

Posted by Brad A. Greenberg

Olmert, left, and Talansky

Morris Talansky is a victim.

At least, that is what the Long Island macher who brought down Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert wants you to believe; that’s the reality Talansky occupies in a lengthy feature in the new issue of New York magazine.

Olmert, as you may remember, just resigned from office because he’s been indicted for accepting bribes and other political indiscretions. (Here are past posts about his downfall and Talansky’s role.)

Talansky told New York’s Scott Fishman that Olmert’s demise came from an inability to avoid trouble:

“I feel the way I feel about the whole thing, very bad. You know, come on. I don’t know how to describe the whole thing….He’s a guy who gets himself into messes. That’s what I don’t understand about him. Maybe it’s a death wish.”

As for the media, Talansky wished God’s wrath be wrought upon them:

“I hope God makes them pay for what they did to me.”

1 Comments — Leave your comment

September 15, 2008 | 4:53 pm

Matt Damon on Palin: ‘It’s like a really bad Disney movie’

Posted by Brad A. Greenberg

Last week, Matt Damon was asked in an interview what he thought about possible President Sarah Palin (sorry to be so macabre, John McCain, but I’m just working off of Damon’s “actuary tables”). He reminds us that we should be afraid, we should be very afraid.

“It’s like a really bad Disney movie. You know?” Damon said. “The hockey mom, ‘Oh I’m just a hockey mom from Alaska,’ and she’s the PRESIDENT, and it’s like she’s facing down Vladamir Putin and using the folksy stuff she learned at the hockey rink. It’s absurd, it’s totally absurd, and I don’t understand why more people aren’t talking about how absurd it is. It’s a really terrifying possibility. The fact that we’ve gotten this far and we’re that close to this being a reality is crazy.

“I need to know if she really think that dinosaurs were here 4,000 years ago,” he added. “That’s important—I want to know that, I really do. Because she’s gonna have the nuclear codes.”

New York magazine’s Daily Intel blog has video (as do I, after the jump) of the interview. I’ve written before that lot of evangelicals are really excited about Palin, who gave new, unified life to McCain’s campaign. That’s a scary thing. As a Christian, I want one of my fellow believers in the Oval Office, though I find it difficult to believe politicians hawking their faith. But I’m also not willing to vote for someone because they are a Christian.

I was talking about this yesterday with an old roommate, and the question is: A Christian president, great, but at what cost?

Read more of this post

45 Comments — Leave your comment

September 15, 2008 | 3:06 pm

‘Family Guy’ attacked by Holocaust denier

Posted by Brad A. Greenberg

Who knew “Family Guy” was in on the Jewish world conspiracy? How did they get a seat at the table with the Elders of Zion?

The Web Guy sent me this video, and at first I assumed its producer, John Alan Martinson Jr, was just an anti-Semite.

He had all the markings of someone who blames “The Jew” for everything that is evil and out of balance in the world. The video opens with Martison stating, “The objective of the show [‘Family Guy’], like all other forms of Jewish entertainment is distracction and demoralization of the host populace.” Martison also directed “Missing Links: The definitive truth behind 9/11,” which, obviously, reveals Jews were responsible. It’s clear he sees himself as a courageous defender of good people against the “Zionist agenda of world domination.”

But then I got to this money quote in the middle of the six-minute video above, when Martison takes issue with jokes about the Holocaust:

“Why so many jokes about Jews and Nazis? This is to control dissent. if the Jew is the one who laughingly trashes Jews, then it can be readily swept aside, while the constant reminder that Hitler was supposedly an evil man that oversaw the slaughter of millions of Jews keeps people believing that, despite no amount of hard evidence to support the Holocaust myth.”

Oh ... so he’s one of those guys. David Irving would be proud.

2 Comments — Leave your comment