I don't watch The Colbert Report but I heard about the greenscreen contest and saw some of the entries up on YouTube. Funny stuff! Then I learn today that ILM submitted its own entry (that came in second) under the name "George L." which was followed by a surprise appearance by Papa George himself on the show. Great! I watched the video posted on starwars.com and found it quite amusing until Jar Jar makes some sort of cheap, dumb crack about "Darth W." I suppose Barbra Streisand wrote the script.

Now I spent an awful lot of time last year arguing with both liberals and conservatives who thought ROTS was "Fahrenheit 911" in space. I still don't think it is. But it has irked me for a while now how U.S. partisan politics have been leaking its way into content like novels and SW Insider, and now this. I'm a conservative Republican, I voted for Bush twice, and I'm a near lifelong SW fan. There are many other fans who are conservatives too. In fact, social conservatives have been among SW's biggest supporters for years, praising its good values and how these films prove you don't need to appeal to the lowest common denominator to rake in the box office. And I'm sure there are many fans of all ideological stripes who would rather not drag what will one day become dated politics into fandom.

Lucasfilm took something that could have been a fun SW moment for all fans and made it another stupid, tired Bush-bashing joke that made it clear the laughs were only for one side of the aisle. As someone who has vociferously and passionately defended GL, SW, and the PT for all of these years (not to mention the $$ I've spent), I'm insulted. But you know what? I'm not going to change my principles and my beliefs for anyone, not even to feel "accepted" by official fandom.