Chevron Ecuador Challenge: Steven Donziger Joe Berlinger, Show All Crude Movie Outtakes!

Steven Donziger and Joe Berlinger 

Recently, a judge ordered Crude film director Joe Berlinger to turn over outtakes from his film about alleged pollution by Texaco (now owned by Chevron) in the Amazon of Ecuador.

Chevron reportedly reviewed the outtakes and found a series of conversations by the attorney behind the lawsuit, Steven Donziger, admitting that the case is "nothing more than smoke and mirrors and bulls__t" as well as other statements that ruin the credibility of the case against the American oil company.

But not so fast, says Berlinger and Donziger.

They wildly claim the outtakes submitted to the 2nd Circuit Court in New York City by Chevron, which is seeking more outtakes from the movie Crude are taken "out of context" and distorting their words.

Berlinger wrote in an e-mail statement to Fortune magazine "The footage citations are being taken out of context and not being presented to the court in its entirety, creating numerous false impressions, precisely what we feared when we were first issued the original subpoena,"

Now, my friends Amazon Watch and Steven Donziger publicist Karen Hinton (who would make a great dinner partner) are pissed that I wrote that the Crude outtakes destroy their case.

I stand by my previous blog on this. I believe that the evidence produced from the movie Crude not only wipes out their case, but probably makes them liable in both the U.S. and Ecuador of fraudulent and misleading legal actions against Chevron.

And, what legal issues could Amazon Watch, Rainforest Action Network, and everyone else face if all their rants against Chevron are knowingly false? Right?

Here's my challenge: Prove me, Zennie Abraham, wrong.

Produce all the footage from the movie so that the public can make up their own mind whether the case against Chevron is a sham created by Donziger and Amazon Watch or whether Chevron is taking their words out of context.

And when I write all the footage, I mean all of the outtakes from the movie Crude.

What do Berlinger, Donziger, Hinton, Amazon Watch, Luis Yanza, Pablo Fajardo and their team have to fear? Apparently a great deal because they are continue to prevent the footage from being seen - and letting all of us make up our minds whether they're telling the truth or not.

It's time for Berlinger, Donziger, and Amazon Watch to put up or shut up.

And for Karen Hinton to buy dinner.

(And a side note: I want it known I support the right of filmmakers to protect their film and videos from unnecessary inspection, but only in the case of real politically important, difference-making work, not in the instance of a trial lawyer in the middle of a lawsuit, trying to make billions under the color of helping the poor of a third world country, when he's clearly partnered with its government.  Crude was made during the Chevron Ecuador legal battle, so it looks like what is it: propaganda. My challenge will reveal that...if they take it.)

Piranha 3D Gets A Sequel

Piranha 3D was a movie i enjoyed immensely this past weekend, it really was a genuine throwback to the eighties with some of the goriest sequences that I've ever witnessed on film. Well today comes news that Dimension Films has given the greenlight to move ahead with a sequel. Producer Mark Canton and Dimension is very pleased with the word of mouth that the film has received from audiences and critics, and with the movie costing hardly anything to make a sequel seems like a no brainer.

The film has also garnered a lot of attention via a Funny or Die video with stars of the movie asking The Acedemy to nominate the film for Best Picture at the Oscars. Check out the video and check out Piranha in theaters now.

Piranha 3D: For Your Consideration from Piranha 3D

Donald Trump on the Mosque, say what? By Suzannah B. Troy

The New York Post has a big photo that perhaps has been air brushed just a little of Donald Trump chiming in on the Mosque at Ground Zero saying it is wrong.

I wrote this comment and posted on The New York Post website.

Suzannah B. Troy

08/23/2010 6:28 PM

Donald Trump is describing how every community feels about his buildings and at Spring and Varrick a construction worker died. No one wanted that hideous building and Christine Quinn would not even show up to the city council task force meeting on DOB where I did show up and speak about way too many construction deaths. It is believed she did not show up because she did not want to face a massive turn out protesting the Trump build at Spring and Varrick. I am for religious freedom but I do think the mosque build at the WTC is not appropriate and instead of building bridges and healing they are creating far more pain and why would they do that. Also they need to be open about where they intend to get money to build their Mosque.

Here is my previous post on this blog site on The Mosque....

TMZ exclusive on Tiger Woods divorce by Suzannah B. Troy

Harvey Levin says there was a chill in the air at the legal preceding between Tiger Woods and Elin Nordegren where they both showed up but did not say a word to each other.  The rest was standard including both being assigned parenting classes!

Tune in to night for more dish from TMZ.   Here is my post on the divorce from early today.

I suggested Tiger Woods consider breaking out officially into the porn industry in my earlier post and on that note TMZ has more on the possible sex tape deal with Heidi Montag and Vivid and it is really interesting....  It involves Heidi and her soon to be ex- Spencer Pratt who wants to make this sex tape deal happen staying at the same hotel....hmmm.   Is it a possible sex tape conspiracy?  Spencer Pratt is not a millionaire and apparently he and perhaps Heidi have decided to take the express track via Vivid.  Watch the Steve Hirsch interview by Harvey Levin.  Sounds like Steve could be talking to Tiger as well.... Check it out....

Remember the Tiger Woods porno spoof tapes.....   Does it seem some days  like all roads leads read to the porn world....? Certainly plenty of Tiger Woods mistresses hailed from there.

Bigoted Erick Erickson Killing CNN's Show Ratings

Image via Wikipedia

CNN's ratings, especially for Rick Sanchez' Rick's List, are already low. So why have Consevative Blogger Erick Erickson, who Firedoglake calls a "Bigot," on a show that's already performing poorly? 

Does this mean that CNN harbors bigots? Logic would indicate that CNN would want to avoid having on a personality so awful people turn the channel, right?

According to TV By The Numbers, Rich Sanchez, who this space views as a good guy, is having a massive ratings problem.

CNN's lost viewers in the Rick's List time slot, where The Situation Room was before it. The viewership has dropped 50 percent in volume in the 25-54 demographic in just one year, from 276,000 viewers to 134,000 viewers for July 2009 vs. July 2010.

With that, why would CNN add the ultimate ratings killer, Erick Erickson? Erickson's mere presence helped foster the ratings failure of CNN's John King USA Show. Many blogs, both liberal and middle of the road, and even The Daily Show, have blasted CNN for having Erickson on. CNN must think such criticism translates into ratings; the logical mind would see that's not the case.

Using CNN as a platform, Erick Erickson has done everything from pretend racial slurs against Democratic Congresspeople never happened, to recently defending Franklin Graham for saying that President Obama was born Muslim.

CNN, which smartly dispatched its under-appreciated CNN iReport Team to Comic Con 2010 to draw a growing group of mainstream Americans who care more about diversity and entertainment, turns around and for some strange and stupid reason feels it has to be a home for angry conservative white guys who cost them ratings: Glenn Beck, Lou Dobbs, and now but in a lesser role, Erick Erickson.

If it's interested in helping to advance the business of parent company Time Warner, CNN needs to give Erick Erickson the boot and emphasize the CNN iReport initiative ASAP.

Tiger Woods divorce final by Suzannah B. Troy

NBC reports the divorce between Tiger Woods and  Elin Nordegren is now officially complete as in  marriage over and out.   Fox Sports reports more details as well as dismisses rumors about the financial wind fall Nordegren is too receiving saying it will be much lower some where between 100 to 150 million dollars but maybe in time more info will come out.  For now hush, hush accept they will share custody.

He may now be officially one of the most eligible bachelors around with longs lines of women eager to date him because apparently if you are saavy and hire Gloria Allred it may pay off for you big time but plenty of women are hugely turned off by him.

Woods and Nordegren released this statement:

“We are sad that our marriage is over and we wish each other the very best for the future,” Woods and Nordegren said in a joint statement released by their respective lawyers.

“While we are no longer married, we are the parents of two wonderful children and their happiness has been, and will always be, of paramount importance to both of us.

My final thoughts are Tiger Woods might think about a new career in the porn industry perhaps becoming a media mogul...  He has plenty of fans that will tune in no matter what.  I am not one of them.  Here is an early post of mine on Jesse James and Tiger Woods and sex addiction.

Vanity Fair HBO's Emmy Success and Suzannah b. Troy's thoughts

Hey everybody, it is me Suzannah B. Troy, a NYC artist with a unique perspective on just about everything... Here is an article from Vanity Fair on The Secret of  HBO's Emmy Success.  When you get to the bottom of this piece, they talk about great scripts so that means great writers but my take not mentioned in the article is this....sex, sex, sex, violence and no tv commercials.   Yes, the scripts are good but what local television stations can compete with graphic sex scenes so sizzling hot they are mere inches away from being porno and the violence it just way too graphic for me but people love it.  They love violence.  As seen in my new YouTube asking an adorable young man about The Expendables his only suggestion to make it better is too add more  explosions and make it longer!

A humorous note is just look at True Blood.  I call it "True Bloodiness"  and would prefer to use my imagination but I am not imagining that all the actors in this season have spent even more time hitting the gym except for Tara who was in superb shape all seasons.  Sex sells and people want to go to there TV's to watch it.  True Blood also has some of  the finest actors on TV but so do other local TV show like House which win Emmys as well.  HBO rakes it in because they use have more good writers, good actors and a  lot more  sex, sex, sex and violence.  Yes, it is a no-brainer Martin Scorsese will win lots of gold as in Emmys for his HBO series Boardwalk Empire.  Here is a photo I took posted on my blog of the set from the Scorsese series coming to HBO.


True Blood is bloody good....
Thanks for tuning in....

ESPN's Tim Cowlishaw Blasted For Scooping NY Jets Beat Reporters

Tim Colishaw on "Around the Horn"

From the, "This is really silly to be angry about" file, we have news that New York Jets beat reporters are pissed off with ESPN Personality and Dallas Morning News Columnist Tim Cowlishaw for breaking the story that Jets' Cornerback Darrelle Revis was set to sign a new contract with the organization on Wednesday.

Cowlishaw, a regular on ESPN's Around The Horn with Jay Mariotti and other media-types, tweeted that

Revis and Jets announce new deal, probably Wednesday. You heard it here first. "Inside information!"
about 22 hours ago via web

Then, about five Tweets later, Cowlishaw forecasted that New York Jets beat reporters would attack him:

I expect Jets writers to shoot down what I wrote about Revis. That's their job. It's not Wednesday is it? I fully expect it then.
about 21 hours ago via web

And he was right. As NewsDay's Bob Glauber pointed out "there have been a few follow-up tweets by Jets beat reporters, including @TheJetsStream (Manish Mehta of the Daily News) and @JennyVrentas (of the Star-Ledger), as well as ESPN's @Adam_Schefter suggesting that the report is not accurate."

And NBC Sports on MSNBC wrote a totally terrible take on Cowlishaw's find:

Keep in mind that Cowlishaw is a columnist -- not a reporter -- but an end to the stalemate obviously makes the most sense for both sides.

Time out. Only a terrible, box-oriented, really small-minded person would think of writing such a statement, let alone thinking it. There's no law by God that says a person's title prevents them from doing anything, or more specifically, knowing something that a person who's title indicates a specialty in that subject is supposed to know.

It also indicates that a narrow mind is closed to information from non-conventional sources. It's no wonder Old Media-types fail.

To counter that, alone, the hope here is Tim Cowlishaw's correct on Wednesday. I've been in that position regarding Major League Baseball and the Oakland Athletics; in that case, MLB delayed the release of the Oakland A's report, and they're still sitting on it.

Harold Dow by Suzannah B. Troy

Harold Dow, an African American correspondent,  award winning shining star at CBS died leaving many people admiring his contributions mourning.  Now the breaking news is he may have died because of a severe asthma attack while driving near his home in Saddlebrook, New Jersey.

Harold Dow won 5 Emmys as well as the admiration of his peers including from other networks.  I believe I saw his memory honored by Channel 11 WPIX local news last night which I thought was quite touching.

Below is a quote and click on it to read an article on him from The New York Daily News with a wonderful photo too.

Susan Zirinsky, executive producer of "48 Hours Mystery" said,
"I deeply miss him already," said "48 Hours Mystery. "He was the most selfless man I have known. It was his humanity, which was felt by everyone he encountered, even in his toughest interviews, that truly defined the greatness of his work."

He had been diagnosed with adult  onset asthma which I wonder if  I may now have the beginning stages of post-Sept. 11 because if I have to run a few short blocks I get burning pains in my throat and upper chest and it feels hard to breath sometimes.

Also note asthma is a huge problem here in NYC and that standing with protestors fighting to keep a firehouse in Harlem open that mayor Bloomberg did close one reason activists said we need the fire house open is to answer medical calls for asthma which are so high in Harlem.

He worked for 40 years for CBS and covered many powerful pieces such as "48 Hours Crack on the Street", won an Emmy for covering the 1988  bombing of  Pan Am flight 103 over Scotland and he was almost killed at the WTC bombing as he reported so he was truly front line.

He will be missed and his contributions honored as well as remembered....

Peyton Manning Doesn't Like Lane Kiffin, Who Has Jay Mariotti Cloud

Image by Getty Images via

USC Head Coach Lane Kiffin is so disliked by so many people, like Indy Colts Quarterback Peyton Manning, he has a "Jay Mariotti Cloud" over him.

That is, Kiffin runs the risk of being compared to Jay Mariotti, who's being trashed in the same way he trashed other athletes and for doing what they did, which was get into criminal trouble. Not that this space is calling Lane Kiffin a criminal at all or implying that he committed a crime.

Kiffin's has not been charged with a crime like domestic abuse or any crime at all, just excoriated for his consistently in-your-face disloyal and disrespectful behavior toward hallowed institutions, specifically The Oakland Raiders, The Tennessee Volunteers, and The Tennessee Titans.

Such an attitude, especially toward storied college football programs, can earn the ire of influential alumni. Like Peyton Manning, who's one of Tennessee's most famous graduates.

On The Dan Patrick Show this Monday morning, Manning said that if he ran into Kiffin on the street, the conversation would not be a long one. Manning said to Dan Patrick, "Our pride was hurt. We didn't think Tennessee was a transition job. The Big Orange nation thought Tennessee was a destination job." Manning, ever the Southern gentleman, finished by wishing Kiffin well at USC.

To give a brief recap, Kiffin, one year into his Tennessee contract, jump ship to become head coach at Souther Cal. The result was that Vols fans wanted to hang Kiffin in effigy, if not for real...



A "what-goes-around-comes-around scenario would be for USC to fire Kiffin because Seattle Seahawks Head Coach Pete Carroll decided he wanted his old job back.

Chatroulette gets a much needed revision By Nikky Raney

Chatroulette will be rereleased today, August 23, 2010.

Chatroulette was created by Russian teenager Andrey Ternovskiy in 2009 when he was 17.  He is now working to make the site more "user-friendly."

It's no secret that anyone who has ever used Chatroulette has been bombarded with men's genitalia. Personally using the site there were six men popping up showing themselves off to thousands on the site, and after clicking "next" and "report as offensive" for six times, the seventh to show up was a couple of guys dancing, fully clothed thankfully.

Ternovskiy has previously stated that in the new version of Chatroulette users would when clicking "next" would be directed to those who are "nexted" the least - meaning that the users who are frequently "nexted" would be skipped.

PC World writes of the relaunch by asking, "Is Chatroulette cleaning up its X-Rated act?" The post reiterates the fact that Chatroulette is known most for all the male vulgarity that appears.

With all the pop ups across the web with "Sexy Singles" always featuring girls half naked asking "Want to watch me on web cam?" it is surprising that on Chatroulette the majority of those using their webcam are men ranging from young to old.

There are some people that go on Chatroulette just to meet others and have a good laugh, but most of those who occupy the web site use it as an opportunity to have others watch them doing vulgar acts.

A charted web analysis of Chatroulette was done by RJ Metrics as reported by Tech Crunch. The information obtained details from 2,883 Chatroulette sessions that covered geographical location, gender, appearance, etc.

Some of their findings include:

• When one spins on Chatroulette (clicking "next) a person is most likely to be connected to someone from the USA. The second most likely country to be connected to is France. 
• Of the spins which show a single person in front of the webcam 89 percent were male and 11 percent were female, and there is a better chance of having a webcam encounter with an advertisement or no person at all than with a female.
• 8 percent of spins show multiple groups of people behind the web cam. The ratio is one in three females appears in a group, while one in 12 males appear in a group.
• 1 in eight spins yields something that is R-rated or worse.
• One is twice as likely to encounter a sign (usually written on a white piece of printer paper with a sharpie) requesting female nudity, than to actually encounter female nudities.
• About 70 percent of the users are young adults, 20 percent are under 20 and 10 percent are 40 or older.
• Female users are mostly younger than the male users. In the group sessions 65 percent of the time the females were teens or younger; while 36 percent of the time males were teens or younger.
• There were no recorded group webcam time with people 40 or older, so the older ones are the ones who like to go solo while the younger ones like to enjoy Chatroulette as a group experience.
• 47 percent of the users are from the United States.
• Italy has the highest concentration of solo males at 98 percent.
• The overall pervert rate on Chatroulette is 13 percent which includes nudity, explicit nudity and committing a lewd act.
• Less than 1 percent of chats well feature a female pervert.
• The United Kingdom features the highest percentage of perverts on Chatroulette at 22 percent. 
• The United States has the lowest pervert rate at 10 percent.

All photos are from an actual Chatroulette session Nikky Raney had. (There will also be a video on Youtube published later. The Chatroulette session took place in order to obtain first hand information.)

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Philippines tourist bus hijacking crisis - By Nikky Raney

UPDATE: Philstar.com, Filipino news source, tells authorities that at 9:05 pm on August 23, 2010 (9:05 am EST time) the hostage has been ended with several hostages still alive.  Ronaldo Mendoza was killed after local police made their way onto the bus to save hostages. At least four hostages remain alive, two are confirmed dead.

--

In the capital city of the Philippines, Manila, former policeman Rolando Mendoza, 33 took a tourist bus hostage on August 23, 2010. (The Philippines is 12 hours ahead of U.S. EST time)

Photo taken from Philippines News

The policeman had been fired a year ago following accusations that he extorted money. He was armed with an M-16 rifle as he hijacked the bus occupied mostly by Chinese nationals. Some of the hostages have been shown crawling from out of the bus.

Rolando released at least nine hostages - three of the freed hostages were Filipinos.

The former officer had placed handcuffs on the actual bus driver, but he managed to escape and jumped through the window saying that everyone inside the bus had died.

Journalists, police and others surrounded the scene, but police prevented the media from getting too near to the bus. The hijacker put two signs on the windows. One said "MEDIA NOW" and the other said "3:00 PM TODAY DEAD LOCK."

He later put up a cardboard sign saying, "BIG MISTAKE TO CORRECT A BIG WRONG DECISION."

The chief of Manila Police District, Rodolfa Magtibay, told media that was at the scene that Mendoza hijacked the bus in order to demand his job back as a police officer. He also warned authorities not to harm his family.

Mendoza's brother, Gregorio Mendoza (also a police officer) arrived at the scene - he informed the media that police were accusing him of being apart of his brother's hijacking. He was taken into custody and shoved into a police car.

Hong Kong officers fled to Manila to help the hostages.

Written by Nikky Raney
Side note: Nikky Raney was born in the Philippines and is half-Filipino.