Outrageously, a new live-action movie based on the G.I. Joe toy line might see Joe's American soldier identity scrubbed to be replaced by membership in an "international force based in Brussels." The news site, IGN Entertainment, a site that reports on the gaming, comics and movie industries, has the scoop on the upcoming live-action G.I. Joe movie that Paramount is launching and it is looking like the G.I. Joe that we all loved, that "real American hero," is going to be replaced with "Action Man," a member of an "international operations team." It appears that the American soldier, a liberator and protector, isn't a good enough role model for the execs at Paramount!

Paramount is even turning Joe's name into an acronym adding insult to injury. Instead of just being the main character's name, it will become G.I.J.O.E., meaning "Global Integrated Joint Operating Entity."

It might not have been instant, but the bad karma a former British tabloid editor got calling President Bush "an idiot" for falling off a Segway in 2003 got him four years later as he broke three ribs when he accidentally hit a curb driving a - wait for it - Segway (h/t Say Anything via Glenn Reynolds).

As reported by Access Hollywood on August 21 (emphasis added):

Piers Morgan may be a great judge of "talent," but clearly, riding a segway is not one of his own.

The "America's Got Talent" judge broke several ribs this weekend as a result of a Segway accident, and may not be able to appear on tonight's season finale.

Hysterically, on June 14, 2003, the tabloid Morgan was then editor for, the Daily Mirror, ran a headline "You'd have to be an idiot to fall off, wouldn't you Mr President," along with a rather disparaging article with these pictures of Bush's accident (emphasis added):

How pathetic are the posters on a large blog when its own founder berates them for being gullible fools for being easily scammed by an obviously phony story? Such was the case with the posters on the favorite "progressive" blog of the MSM, the Daily Kos, when its founder, Markos Moulitsas, tore into them for being suckers because they fell for a story about a supposed imminent U.S. invasion of Iran based on the fantasies of a blogger with a history of fabulist tall tales. To add insult to injury, Moulitsas even cited a "rightwing" blog to discredit the thread posted by Daily Kos blogger Maccabee who originated the Iran invasion fantasy:

Seriously, just because something online confirms your own viewpoint or prejudices or whatnot, it does not mean it's true.

Skepticism is a virtue.

Now the right-wingers are laughing at the gullibility of those who recommend Maccabee's diaries.

On Monday, the Washington Post broke the news of another major Hillary Clinton campaign finance fiasco that seems destined to be ignored or downplayed by media in much the same way previous instances of such behavior by the former First Lady avoided press scrutiny.

After all, the media for seven years largely buried Hillary's involvement with convicted felon Peter F. Paul during her 2000 senatorial campaign, and have clearly downplayed last week's revelations concerning fugitive Norman Hsu's ties to the junior senator from New York.

Now, as reported by the Post, there's a third scandal involving the front-runner for the Democrat presidential nomination which, given past precedent, might also not receive the kind of attention the press would give the matter if Hillary had an "R" next to her name (emphasis added throughout):

Actor and commentator Ben Stein strongly defended Larry Craig on Friday's "Your World with Neil Cavuto," arguing that the police officer who arrested the Idaho Republican senator used "Gestapo tactics" to "browbeat" him into pleading guilty when, in fact, Craig had not committed any illegal act.

"He didn't do anything. He tapped his foot," Stein said. "And I don't like the idea that people are sitting in the next stall from you at a public bathroom listening to whether or not you tap your foot. This is, as I said, Gestapo tactics, Gestapo, Gestapo, Gestapo. It's not America."

Video: Windows Media (5.6 MB) Real (5.1 MB) Audio: MP3

Transcript follows:

If a survey found that the overwhelming majority of Americans believe lawmakers are using global warming hysteria to raise taxes, would the climate change obsessed media report it?

Highly doubtful, wouldn't you agree?

Well, Britain's Daily Mail published an article Monday that seems quite unlikely any major U.S. press outlet would dare cover for fear of contradicting the media meme of the debate being over concerning this controversial issue (emphasis added throughout, h/t Benny Peiser):

Possible discussion point: Most of our national holidays have some special meaning to the citizenry. Other than the informal end of summer, and the beginning of the new school year, what does Labor Day mean to you?

In an Entertainment Weekly interview, Jodie Foster explained her views on guns, “I don't believe that any gun should be in the hand of a thinking, feeling, breathing human being.”

She also said it is “shameful” that the “unsophisticated people who see a sophisticated movie” will cheer when she goes after the bad guys who kill her fiance in her new vigilante movie “The Brave One”

(emphasis mine throughout):

ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY: There's a rallying moment in The Brave One when you stick a gun in a bad guy's face and say, ''I want my dog back.'' How are you going to feel about the audience cheering on your character as she starts hunting people down?
JODIE FOSTER: It's shameful, but that's human and that's who we are as human beings. There will be unsophisticated people who see a sophisticated movie. Just like there were in The Accused. And thank God I only went to one screening of that movie with an audience.

Katie Couric reporting from Iraq.