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Jar Jar Binks is widely considered one of the weakest characters in the entire “Star Wars” franchise, but George Lucas doesn’t seem to care. In a pre-taped video message that aired during Star Wars Celebration ahead of the 20th anniversary panel for “The Phantom Menace,” Lucas once again surprised fans by naming the polarizing Jar Jar as his favorite “Star Wars” character of all time. A source of comic relief in “The Phantom Menace,” Jar Jar was inspired by Disney’s Goofy and made history as the first fully CGI character in a live-action movie. “Thank you for coming to the...

Polish govt under fire after secretly filmed talks By Natalia Reiter and Pawel Sobczak Reuters Wednesday, September 27, 2006; 7:05 AM WARSAW (Reuters) - Poland's political crisis deepened on Wednesday after television aired secretly filmed meetings that sparked calls on the prime minister to step down. The ruling conservatives of Prime Minister Jaroslaw Kaczynski are trying to build a new majority coalition after ditching their leftist partners Self-Defense last week in a row over the budget and a decision to send troops to Afghanistan. But their efforts suffered a blow when TVN television late on Tuesday showed footage of Kaczynski's...

New Setback in German-Polish Ties German President Horst Köhler has angered the Polish government by giving a speech to a group respresenting Germans expelled from Poland after World War II. But German commentators have rushed to Köhler's defense, saying Poland's Prime Minister Jaroslaw Kaczynski was wrong to condemn a speech urging expellees to respect Polish concerns. German President Horst Köhler has provoked the ire of Poland's Prime Minister Jaroslaw Kaczynski for addressing a gathering of 1,000 Germans expelled from Poland after World War II. In his speech Köhler urged Germans to be sensitive to Polish concerns about plans by the...

Cultural Wars: The Multicultural Menace By Frederick Meekins Part of the appeal of the Star Wars saga no doubt arises in the struggle of its protagonists against a pervasive tyranny literally of galactic proportions. It seems that same spirit of totalitarianism may be seeping off the big screen and into the down-to-earth world of everyday life. In his commentary "George Lucas: Closet Racist," columnist Gregory Hand examined the ludicrous response by the diversity racket protesting "Attack of the Clones," the latest installment of the popular series. While these sentiments might gain a hearing in the press as they did in...

To: My Fellow Democrats in the United States Senate From: Tom Daschle, Majority Leader Subject: My review of Star Wars Episode II: Attack of the Clones. I know many members of this august body joined in at the special viewing of George Lucas’s latest installment in his Star Wars saga, a fantasy of such epic proportions that we labeled Reagan’s SDI with the same title, though the old coot took it in stride and still managed to bamboozle Gorbachev with it. Perhaps Gorbachev got confused and imaged AT-AT Walkers coming over the Arctic Circle. No matter, that’s Gungan flux under...

STAR WARS -- EPISODE 2: ATTACK OF THE CLONES / ** (PG) BY ROGER EBERT It is not what's there on the screen that disappoints me, but what's not there. It is easy to hail the imaginative computer images that George Lucas brings to "Star Wars: Episode II--Attack of the Clones." To marvel at his strange new aliens and towering cities and sights such as thousands of clones all marching in perfect ranks into a huge spaceship. To see the beginnings of the dark side in young Anakin Skywalker. All of those experiences are there to be cheered by fans...

Man oh man!