George Clooney "I Am A Liberal.There, I Said It"

SCROLL DOWN FOR HOT OFF THE PRESS UPDATE

George Clooney writes in Huffington Post

I am a liberal. And I make no apologies for it. Hell, I'm proud of it.

Too many people run away from the label. They whisper it like you'd whisper "I'm a Nazi." Like it's dirty word. But turn away from saying "I'm a liberal" and it's like you're turning away from saying that blacks should be allowed to sit in the front of the bus, that women should be able to vote and get paid the same as a man, that McCarthy was wrong, that Vietnam was a mistake.
And that Saddam Hussein had no ties to al-Qaeda and had nothing to do with 9/11.

This is an incredibly polarized time (wonder how that happened?). But I find that, more and more, people are trying to find things we can agree on. And, for me, one of the things we absolutely need to agree on is the idea that we're all allowed to question authority. We have to agree that it's not unpatriotic to hold our leaders accountable and to speak out.

That's one of the things that drew me to making a film about Murrow. When you hear Murrow say, "We mustn't confuse dissent with disloyalty" and "We can't defend freedom at home by deserting it at home," it's like he's commenting on today's headlines.

The fear of been criticized can be paralyzing. Just look at the way so many Democrats caved in the run up to the war. In 2003, a lot of us were saying, where is the link between Saddam and bin Laden? What does Iraq have to do with 9/11? We knew it was bullshit. Which is why it drives me crazy to hear all these Democrats saying, "We were misled." It makes me want to shout, "Fuck you, you weren't misled. You were afraid of being called unpatriotic."

Bottom line: it's not merely our right to question our government, it's our duty. Whatever the consequences. We can't demand freedom of speech then turn around and say, But please don't say bad things about us. You gotta be a grown up and take your hits.

I am a liberal. Fire away.

Could someone please explain to me what all the fuss is about? So the hunky George Clooney is a liberal....and?

Outside The Beltway is equally confused: "So, who is it in American politics who believes blacks should sit in the back of the bus? Or that women shouldn’t be allowed to vote? Or get paid the same as a man if they’re actually doing the same job? No one that I know of. Indeed, these issues were resolved well before Clooney was of voting age.

There is still some debate as to whether McCarthy was “wrong,” I suppose, although not much. There are those who believe that there were indeed Communists in high places in the federal bureaucracy but virtually none who think McCarthy’s tactics were honorable. Almost everyone now agrees that Vietnam (a war that liberal presidents John Kennedy and Lyndon Johnson got us into and nominal conservative Richard Nixon got us out of, by the way) was a mistake, although some still believe the cause itself was just.[...]

Let’s not confuse overheated rhetoric for ideology."

Reliapundit spears no punches, and delivers the hard blows. Mind the face, not the face......

Mark @ Decision '08: "By God, who knew? What a courageous man, to align one’s politics with 96% of one’s peers, what a martyr..."

A not to miss article on Clooney's liberalism by my favorite columnist Mark Steyn

We have a dialect translation of Clooney's article from Bluto @ The Jawa Report, and the video from  Conservative Blog Therapy

More from both sides of the Blogosphere @ MRWC, NewsBusters, Sister Toldjah, IMAO, USS Neverdock, TalkLeft, Iowa Voice, Publius Rendezvous, Political Pitbull, Rolling Barrage, Don't Go Into The Light, The Median Sib

HOT OFF THE PRESS UPDATE: You see what happens when you give a liberal latitude: they take liberties. Clooney denies blogging for Arianna Huffington, and accuses her of using some of his recent answers to political questions, in a way that makes it look as if he wrote the post for her Huffington Post blog site. Furthermore he has demanded that the post be removed from her site:

According to Shawn Sachs at Ken Sunshine’s office, Clooney's camp asked her to issue a statement saying she lied and misled Clooney, which she refused to do. “They also asked us to take down the blog which we did.”

Then why is it still up?

“It is?” asked Sachs.

Yup. Just click on the Huffington Post link in the item.

“Oh, you’re right. Here it is. I’ll call you back.”
[...] Arianna's defense does not impress Clooney rep Stan Rosenfield much: "I read (Arianna's) response. This wasn't a misunderstanding. It was misrepresentation."

The Huffington response.

The Political Pit Bull has the blow by blow account of Huffington's response, and this from her comments section where they are really letting her have it:

You just don't get it:

[Arianna:] "This is the first time there was no back and forth with the writer -- our sample was approved 'as is' -- which is where the misunderstanding occurred."

NO!

The misunderstanding was your audience misunderstanding that this was actually not written by the supposed author.

Whatever the deal was with the publicist or Mr. Clooney, you should have told US that this wasn't something written by someone but a compilation of their previous interview answers.

What you did was misrepresent that blog post to your audience, the HuffPo readers.

Shame on you again for thinking that it is OK to dupe your readers. Did your last name change to Frey all of a sudden?

More on that from Ed Driscoll, Outside The Beltway, PunditGuy, Vichy Democrats, Media Blog on National, Decision '08, Iowa Voice,  Expose the Left, TalkLeft, Publius Rendezvous, Ace of Spades, The Sundries Shack, LA Observed and Rantings of a Sandmonkey

Comments

[Kenny Pierce]

My film,

For the same reason Alexandra feels the same need...

It's not that they express their opinion; it's that they think the rest of us should pay attention to it.

[my film]

I don't get it. Why actors, directors, musicians, etc have that need to say their political oppinion to whole world? Why they just do what they do and keep political oppinion private?

[Ariel]

Mormons repudiated polygamy in the 1890's as a condition to statehood for Utah, as well as to avoid further issues with the US Govenment and military. The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, the Mormons, is based in Utah in Salt Lake City, where polygamy is illegal. No other group that believes in the Book of Mormon is called Mormon, officially, with the possible exception of the original polygamous families that left Utah for Mexico in the 1890's. The group Mr. Byron erroneously alludes to is a sick cultic sect living in the Arizona Strip, a remote isolated area. This group would not be considered Mormon by anyone with any knowledge on the subject, as a belief in the Book of Mormon as revelation does not make you "Mormon". There are currently 5 LDS churches in the US, only the Utah one is called Mormon.
I repeated myself so that Mr. Byron might understand.
Raimondo's reply to Mr. Byron was excellent though probably wasted on him.

[Raimondo]

North by Northwest,

True and thank you.

[Raimondo]

To Michael..

Dude..I am from Europe!! I've been to Holland...It's great...And guess what? Not all Dutch people are liberal! I'm assuming you are Dutch, by your name. You could also be South African...Africaans.

Read my comment thorougly. I experienced horrors in AFRICA that would make your hair stand on end, not in Europe. I am European through and through and absolutely proud of it on multiple levels. My children all hold dual nationalities.

I also have opinions...I don't walk lock and step with every silly little European bureaucrat who thinks that they know best what is good for me...I know best what is good for me.

I can go on and on about the ills of big European government, although I must admit many things in Europe are very admirable...I visit Europe at least 4 times a year and my family spends the whole summer there with the rest of my family who lives there permanently...The question is wether you visit the USA often enough and for long enough periods to truly understand American cultural values, beyond what Hollywood feeds you...

You must think that all middle of the road Americans are fat and dumb!..Is that what Michael Moore told you?... There's a silent majority here too..just like in Spain, in Italy, in France, and almost everywhere where working people are too busy working to make noise and flap about nonsense...All the Spaniards I have met recently are very upset about their government's new socialistic bent...A great number of Italians are hoping the left does not win this next referendum because things will go backwards instead of forward, especially for small to mid sized businesses...I spoke to some young enterprising Frenchmen who feel very hampered when in comes to labor laws, allowing them to have more than one job, etc...

Europe is great in spite of its ills...However the US is wonderful too, in spite of Hollywood!

[Michael (van der) Galien]

Hahaha what a nasty act!

"I would like to see Liberals who truly believe in freedom, who truly believe in "The Pursuit of Happiness" and who truly believe in humanistic values."

Visit Europe.

[Alexandra]

I have just posted an update "Clooney to Arianna: I Did Not Blog".
Apparently Clooney has demanded Huffington take the post down forthwith, as he did not blog on her site. She had allegedly compiled different quotes from different times, and posted it as if though he had blogged on her site.

[North by Northwest]

Raimondo,

You are making some excellent points. You are living proof that experiencing foreign cultures first hand quite often has the opposite effect to what many die hard liberals romantically profess: "It's only our greed and imperialism coupled with hyped up media biased and your propaganda that causes us to interfere in [..fill in at will...it doesn't matter as the charge is always the same...]; if you only go there you see that things are not so bad; that people can take care of their own affairs just fine; that they don't need our intervention....."

Things are quite often much worse when you're on the ground; when you smell, hear and feel the horrors. Nothing cures romantic naïveté more quickly and more permanently.

BTW, enjoyed looking at your art ;-)

[Raimondo]

We agree on George.

I do live in the bluest of blue states...Massachusetts...and I love it here! Perhaps because New England is stodgy, like a crusty old curmudgeon. New Englanders proclaim liberalism, but they vote out of a generational allegiance to the Democratic party. Scratch a New Englander and they are as stubborn as a Maine barnacle. New England Democrats remind me more of the few aristocrats still left in Europe who vote for their tiny monarchist parties out of a visceral allegiance, than people who really think deeply about who is in office.

I have travelled the world and lived in countless places, ranging from Africa to the Middle East and Europe. I'm a recently; post 9-11, naturalized US citizen. Mine is a mixed happy marriage between two cultures, American and European. My children spend each summer in Italy and we travel all over Europe. In April we are going to be visiting nine countries in the Caribbean and South America. My children have an uncle who is black, African and a devout Muslim. I speak four languages fluently and my children speak two. One of the languages I speak is spoken only in a Muslim country. I am also more versed in the Quran than I am the Bible, because I was a fairly lousy Sunday school atendee, but the Quran was immersed everywhere in the country I grew up in. I can recite the main essential Muslim prayer in original Arabic, it was taught to me as an infant by maids, cooks and dishwashers. I am steeped in Islam. I however beg to differ with the proliferation of the Saudi Wahhabi style Islam that is muscling its way into everyone's life. I see it for what it is.

So much for being open minded. I am precisely that. Therefore I think and question, and vote for whoever I think is going to fulfill a specific agenda as closely as possible at a given time. I am subject to changing my mind, when I feel like it. I have not signed a pact with any given party. I am of the opinion that we are always voting for who we think may be the lesser of two evils at any given time. There are plenty of things the Republicans are failures at...however at this point in time, in my view, less than than the Democrats. This may change...Man I love the dynamics of a functioning Democracy!

An interesting book about Mormons "under The Banner of Heaven" by John Krakhauer. I read it and came away with the notion that only very small groups of Mormoms practice polygamy and are reviled by the official church of Latter Day Saints. He also draws a parallel between extreme remote Mormon sects and Muslim extremists. Thus proving the point that extremism is not a healthy stance in today's world.

This brings me to my point. As a former Liberal and a free thinking human being, I have come to the conclusion that contemporary Liberals entertain extreme notions and are morbidly locked into a Socialist mindset. I would like to see Liberals who truly believe in freedom, who truly believe in "The Pursuit of Happiness" and who truly believe in humanistic values. I am a free being, with a very non conformist will. I have experienced Communism. I have experienced war first hand. I have seen people hacked to death in front of my eyes. I have seen executions. I have experienced the loss of everyone I knew and of places that no longer are. Reduced to rubble because of hatred and violence. I have also experienced racial tribal bias and wholesale racism against me, my family, my loved ones and the society I grew up in. I can speak volumes on the subject my friend, and let me tell you one thing there is nothing more exalting than a free will and the ability to express oneself!

Unfortunately Liberals have sided with forces that are bent on silencing individualism, and on making sure we evolve into a cradle to grave society. Where the government changes our diapers when we are born and provides us with depends when we are no longer continent. Sorry..Dude..that ain't for me..because the step that follows is wholesale dictatorship!

I believe in the freedom to worship, in the freedom to love one's country, or countries or cultures. I am absolutely not anti gay, however I do not like it when Catholic Charities in Massachusetts has to shut down its century old adoption program because they choose not to let gay couples adopt. I find it a heavy handed intrusion by the government and a grave punishment to a charity that has placed countless children in happy homes. And I don't even attend church! I don't attend any organized service of any denomination, I get bored too easily. I'm much happier practicing martial arts and creating artwork that enriches, embellishes and brings health and happiness into the world. I also believe in the freedom to pursue as much money as one wants, unhampered by crippling taxes that fill inefficient greedy government coffers. I don't believe wealth should be redistributed, because those who claim to redistribute just serve their own purposes. Let wealth be; both spiritual wealth and material wealth. And if you don't think the two are related, it's because you aren't fullfilling your primary duty..I.e. Pursuing your own happiness. You're undisciplined, so you look outward at who has what, instead of peering inward and marveling at the infinite resources that lie within and honoring your soul by sharing them with humankind...Don't gripe! Create!

So see I'm not a one dimensional being. I am a pesron who has learned to take "The Pursuit of Happiness" serioulsy...take a load off and join me...the crew you're chillin' with does not have your best interest at hand!

At our house on any given night we have friends from all corners of the world, of all colors and creeds and the discussions are quite vibrant, loud and opinionated...We don't judge books by their cover here, we read them cover to cover, and if we don't like them we aren't afraid to say so! We encourage people to take off their Politically Correct muzzles so we can hear what they really have to say...if they are too prudish to keep up..well it's their loss!

[DavidByron]

Well to answer your question, I hope in the same manner you asked it, you should raise your son as a liberal because they are more responsible, more decent, compassionate, law abiding, hard working and moral people than conservatives. Oh and smarter too -- as you said yourself.

You should probably move to a "Blue" state where you won't be surrounded by so many government freeloaders -- nearly all "Red" states have their hand out to the federal government while "Blue" states pick up the tab. That's not a good example for a kid.

And Blue states have less pre-marital sex and divorce. You mentioned those were concerns. I don't think you have to worry too much about monogamy. The only people who practise polygamy these days are those Mormons -- coincidentally Utah is the most dependably conservative state in the union.

You won't have to try and excuse the gross negligence, corruption and lawlessness of the government --- just tell your kid, "They are Republicans -- we're better than they are. We don't lie and cheat and steal people's money like they do." That's going to be worth a lot because the Republicans hit a new scandal every week, a new indictment each month, and it looks like its going to be a long three years of it.

And if you're a christian it's perfect. No more having to tell your kids to hate gay people while simultaneously telling them to love their neighbour. No more telling them to hate muslim and arab foreigners while teaching them God says to love your enemies.

In short raise your kids to see others as his equals instead of his enemies, to spead peace not war, to seek the best for everyone instead of being given over to greed and nationalism, and to be part of the progress that humankind is making, eliminating the ugly history of racism and oppression throughout the world that conservatives hark backwards to as some kind of "golden age".

And yes, George really needs to start acting his age and take responsibility for his mistakes.

[Raimondo]

What do you mean "somehow Liberal has become a dirty word!" It's not by happenstance that most Americans at this point in time are either confused or reviled by the position taken by those who proclaim themselves liberal.

I think if the so called "Liberals who don't stand up to Bush", actually had a platform that proposed a few solutions, as opposed to the same old drivel and loudmouth anti Western, anti-Capitalist bashing they seem to focus on. Maybe they would garner a few more votes other than the ones that come from their radical left wing core. Who quite frankly don't make a lick of sense to most regular folk.

People who work their tails off day in and day out, to pay heaping bills and mortgages while struggling to teach their children the skills needed to become a productive member of society, find themselves at odds with what the Liberal establishment is relentlessly preaching.

How am I going to teach my son to be an honest citizen and a responsible man, when I'm told that the likes of Tookie Williams are examples of victims of our evil repressive society?

How can I teach him be a responsible father when we are told that divorce, abortion and creative village like arrangements are as valid as monogamous marriage vows?

How can I teach him to fight the enemy courageously when we're told that his enemy does not consist of those who wish ill upon the society in which he belongs to, instead the enemy is us?

How can I tell my children to be responsible for their well being and their actions when they are told that their actions do not bear consequences? I.e: It's o.k to weigh 400 pounds and take up three bus seats, because it's not your fault if you achieve such a state of unbridled discipline that you have to eat 1200 bags of Fritos a day..It's the government's fault. Or it's ok to get poor grades in school, it's not your fault, its the teacher's fault. Or it's ok to speak poorly, don't worry if people judge you based on how you express yourself because that just highlights their bias, not your own laziness.

The list of absurdities is endless...you self proclaimed Liberals out there know that I have not even scratched the surface in the menu of gripes that you've concoted. You would have us believe that if a parent yells at his children he is a Fascist, or if a parent informs her child that Ebonics is not proper parlance she is the Grand dragon of the Ku Klux Klan.

I thought I would never live to see a time when the tyrrany of the left woud ever be questioned. Hard working pricipled Joe Smoes were going the way of the Dodo, very fast. As a straight, married, father of three who is an artist, there were countless times where I thought life would be much easier for me in my field if I proclaimed some minority status, to advance in the field of academia or to show in galleries. Now fortunately our voices are beginning to be heard. People are forming diverse groups that communicate in all sorts of ways to reclaim their cultural values. They are seeing through the tyrrany and the negative destructive agendas imposed upon us by the left.

I'm 40 years old, and I can't remember a single teacher (perhaps one or two, insignificant Economics or History professors) I ever had who was not left of center. We took it for granted. Intellectuals were lefties. Now finally this all knowing power base is beginning to erode, new ideas are beginning to seep in and gain mainstream focus. We've had decades of left leaning political agendas that have failed, all over the world, with disastrous consequences.

It's time to pick up where Western culture left off, and it's time to reclaim the positive spirit that got us where we are now. As much as we may like to deconstruct and scorn the notion that we are great, we still are the greatest society, however flawed that exists to date. So let's pick ouselves up, cut the crap, and return to the tried and true values that got us here in the first place. Then perhaps maybe we can elevate the debate to higher phylosphical or metaphysical ends. But in order to do this we must first do away with the Marxist discourse and the regressive notions of minority oppression that do more to fog our vision than help truly liberate us, intellectually, spiritually, economically and in countless other ways.

Liberals nowadays remind me of myself when I was a head bangin' teen who hated everything for the sake of hating everything. I was supposedly questioning the status quo, in a haze of pot smoke and mind numbing tunes. We were collectively shocking the world...little did we know that we were a bunch of sheep ourselves, far more conformist than our geeky parents.

A hint to George...he may want to accept being his age and start acting it...or soon he may look and sound like Harry Bellafonte

[Michael (van der) Galien]

This is an interesting comment from Alexandra:
"Look what you made me do, 'Clooney bashing', I did not want to do that....he's hunky that's all that matters right now, I couldn't care less if he is a liberal, darn it!".

The interesting part is of course not whether or not Clooney (clowny?) is 'hunky'.
The interesting part is that somehow you seem to imply that normally it would matter whether someone is a liberal or not. I can state, hand across my heart, there are a lot of very friendly, intelligent and 'hunky' liberals out there. A lot of liberals are extremely succesful and focused.
This, of course, has nothing to do with the fact I'm a liberal myself.

Anyway: the big deal is of course not whether or not George is a liberal: 80% of hollywood probably is. His message, however, is a great one: it's towards those democrats in Congress who are not resisting this Bush government because they are afraid to be called 'liberal' or 'anti-american' and more 'intelligent' remarks like that. The message he tries to send is that politicians just need to stand up for their beliefs.

He's got a great point.

[Alexandra]

Joseph,

"What's all the fuss about?" I'll be blunt.[...]

It is perfectly disingenuous of anyone with intelligence and education to pretend that this completely insulting rhetoric does not exist, and is not exploited for maximum personal advantage by the professional politicians of the Republican Party.

It is disingenuous of you to do so.[...]

This largely left their heads screwed on straight, and made for a common bond that produced conservatives of rhetorical restraint and personal substance: William Buckley, Barry Goldwater, Ronald Reagan, George H.W. Bush.
These were men whom anyone could respect, largely because they respected the peers who disagreed with them. And pursued politics with a sense of inclusive public purpose.

Did you repeat the "you" part just in case I did not think it related to me? LOL! Can we get off the soap box please, and get back on subject?

You would like me get the violin out for a democrat in Hollywood? You have to be kidding me. Or do you think Clooney is representing and relating to middle America when he utters a word....or perhaps the whole of America holds their breath in heartfelt unity, as his words are their words, and his thoughts are their thoughts.

A Democrat in Hollywood declaring that he is one, who makes your little heart jump, at the sheer outrage of how discriminated against George must feel as a liberal in his surroundings. I have spent too much time in LA and the hills in my time, to listen to nonsense about Clooney representing America, or feeling like an outcast.

Try being a conservative there for one day, or a libertarian like me for any length of time. This is George Clooney speaking here, about himself and his own feelings.

You may call me disingenous, but guess what, in this instance, I'll stay exactly where I am: "What's all the fuss about?".

Lighten up Joseph, have a Martini, but don't tell me that a statement coming from Clooney should not be met with exactly that response. God save your team if they are relying on Clooney-the martyr, to bat for them on the issue of reclaiming the word "liberal".

Look what you made me do, 'Clooney bashing', I did not want to do that....he's hunky that's all that matters right now, I couldn't care less if he is a liberal, darn it!

[Jeremiah]

Dennis Prager says it so well in "SPEECH WE'D LIKE TO HEAR FROM AN ACADEMY AWARD WINNER":

"Here's a speech we would like to hear from an Academy Award winner:

I thank you for this wonderful award. Receiving an Academy Award gives the recipient an almost unique opportunity to speak to hundreds of millions people around the world, so I would like take this once-in-a-lifetime moment to say this:

First, I want to thank my country, the United States of America...."

Read the rest at: http://www.creators.com/opinion_show.cfm?columnsName=pra

[Joseph Marshall]

What's the fuss about? I'll be blunt. There is a small, hard, constipating core--which is now at the center of the Republican party--that has consistently attempted to persuade a majority of Americans that the American Flag is their own personal fashion statement, and the American nation is the patented product of their own religious views.

Somewhere around January 2003, they had pretty nearly succeeded. More nearly, I think, than at any time since the early 1950's

I'll be even blunter than Mr. Clooney: it isn't. Love of this country, both what it is and what it stands for, is the personal possession of no political view.

This small, hard core been around a long time. For my sins I have dipped far enough into the details of 20th Century American history to have read many primary sources as quoted extensively in contemporary news. And I can tell you for a fact that this core of people, and what they say about their political opponents, has been in existence since at least the early 1920's.

The rhetoric has been absolutely the same. You could clip whole prose passages--from the "red-baiters" and "decency crusaders" of the 1920's; from Father Coughlin; and from Joe McCarthy and lesser luminaries of the House Un-American Activities Committee--and drop them straight into the broadcast transcripts of Bill O'Reilly, Rush Limbaugh, Pat Robertson, G. Gordon Liddy, Glenn Beck, and dozens of others who are far less entertaining with the same stale viterperation. Including, dare I suggest it, a blogger or two.

No one would notice the substitutions.

The message is the same: people who think differently than we do about this country and its affairs are both treasonous--either by intention or by idiotic default--and morally corrupt in the bargain.

It is perfectly disingenuous of anyone with intelligence and education to pretend that this completely insulting rhetoric does not exist, and is not exploited for maximum personal advantage by the professional politicians of the Republican Party.

It is disingenuous of you to do so.

Many of my age grew up with the fact that our parents largely saw this rhetoric for what it was: the dangerous chronic case of malarial fever in the body politic which must be endured but had to be dosed with the quinine of common sense when it got out of hand.

They had seen real economic misery, real danger from fascist or soviet tyranny, real horror of millions of people's lives snuffed out, and real peril from global thermonuclear war.

This largely left their heads screwed on straight, and made for a common bond that produced conservatives of rhetorical restraint and personal substance: William Buckley, Barry Goldwater, Ronald Reagan, George H.W. Bush.
These were men whom anyone could respect, largely because they respected the peers who disagreed with them. And pursued politics with a sense of inclusive public purpose.

The shriveled midgets who have inherited the mantle from them don't even deserve personal mention, except--as in the case of the commentators--where they have so rudely forced those names by broadcast into the workplace, the rush-hour car, or the private home.

Clooney is a lightweight whose views are not particularly surprising or compelling and the same distance of time and generations separates him and his blather from Johnny Cash:

"I didn't vote for Mr. Bush. Let's just leave it at that."

[Michael (van der) Galien]

Great article from George.

He is completely right. The only reason so many Democrats let Bush get away with everything is the fear of being called unpatriotic / liberal.
It is quite redicilous when one thinks about it: Your country's foundations is liberalism. Read John Stuart Mill (for instance) and then read your Constitution. It is the prototype of a liberal Constitution:
- small government (clearly outlined authorities)
- lots of checks and balances
- separation of powers
- lot of rights / freedom for the citizens

Somehow 'liberal' became a dirty word. That is first of all (for reasons I just explained) redicilous and secondly a lot of people mistake liberalism for something closer to socialism. Mind you: liberalism does not want a larger government.

[gringoman]

....On Oscar night, Hollywood, that well-known enemy of oppression, tyranny, intimidation and fascism, was silent (even though Al-Quaeda asserts that their mutual enemy, President Bush, did a "Bring it on" for the Cartoon Jihad.) George Clooney proved again why many ladies and neo-coms consider him a mind too, and not just a Fortunate Hunk. One of his movies showed the socially redeeming side of Islamic terror, and the other bravely raked over Joe McCarthy, the most raked-over Senator in U.S. history. Gorgeous Georgie proclaimed that Hollywood is ahead of the curve, and he doesn't mind being "out of touch" in the right way. Possibly the closest they came to a cartoon statement was in not naming "Brokeback Mountain" as Best Movie. Were they fearing the evangelicals, or dreading the Koranics calling them 'Homosexual Crusaders'? Everyone agreed that the liveliest (meaning most honest?) moment was the award to rappers Three 6 Mafia for Best Song, another example of black entertainment success in Liberalized America. But unlike most previous winners, like "Secret Love," "The Shadow of Your Smile," "Raindrops Keep Falling On My Head," "Call Me Irresponsible' etc. it's unlikely that Hollywood's 2006 selection can be played in the Middle East except where they need yet another example of the Great Satan: "It's Hard Out There For a Pimp........"

from 'The Dane That Roared" at gringonan.

[Raimondo]

Yes and I don't think I'm alone either. It seems like Harry Potter 4 or 5 or whatever number, is rightfully able to eclipse Clooney at the box office.

Let me see...Clooney...What epic movies was he ever in? I guess my choice in the end is not based on his political stance, but on his rather bland talent...History is full of talented artists with odious points of view...Picasso was briefly a self proclaimed Stalinist...that does not change my view of him as an artist...I guess he spent more time painting in the end, than clowning around with political affectations...Which reminds me...I've gotta get back to work!

[DavidByron]

Would you refuse to see a film with him as an actor because of this? or is it a non-issue?

[Raimondo]

Overpaid and out of touch...The National Review Feb 27 issue showcases a very informative article by Mark Steyn on this buffoon, and the industry he represents...

He's a joke...He would have been an activist if this were 1956, not 2006! There is absolutely nothing to admire in this overvalued peacock preening his feathers with issues that are no longer issues...maybe someday he can embarass us further and help carry the Olympic flag along with like minded nitwit Susan Sarandon.

These people are tired of plying their trade, so they diverge into territory they know nothing about. I say we pay them less so they have to struggle like everyone else and perhaps become good at their craft. It costs a family of five approximately $100 to go to the movies these days, just to be subjected to 90 minutes of atrocious acting and get a supersized portion of slanted, childish opinions.

Perhaps George Clooney should think of donating one of the underutilized wings of his Lake Como villa to house a few hundred middle income Americans.

[DavidByron]

What I do think is brave is that he's causing a stir. I would imagine that a lot of his success comes from branding himself a certain way as an actor so people will go see his movies. I think a lot of people would be worried this sort of public statement would put off some fans. On the other hand I believe that most people respond positively to someone, perhaps to men especially, seen as willing to stand up for what they see as right.

[Huan]

at least he acknowledge the democrats political failure.
and fail to acknowledge his own poltical elistism.

btw, another Brom. interesting. in a mood?

[Alexandra]

Hahahahaha. Hunky, yeah 'fraid so. Very Cary Grant.

Anyway, it sounds more like a battle cry to me, hence the way over the top martyr visual.

You are right. The entire Hollywood elite are liberal, the entire film industry is liberal, the MSM is liberal. So he should feel all cosy and warm inside. As for the bashing, it goes both ways, so I still say...and?

Wait...do you think he's doing a Ronald Reagan on us? He does look a hell of a lot better than John Kerry that's for sure. Ahem.

[DavidByron]

Well this is an easy set up from all the word "liberal" bashing that some conservatives do. In short it means that tactic just ran out of track. It's a sort of jujitsu move by Clooney. He gets to use the power of the conservative attack on that word against them. As above one possible response by Conservatives would be the, "who me?" response where they try to deny they ever did attack the word "liberal".

(I'm talking generally here - I have no idea and don't meant to imply you yourself ever attacked the word "liberal")

But such a response by Conservatives may look forced and insincere as well as double minded --- to the extent that they are seen as having previously attacked the word "liberal".

So that's what's going on, although frankly if you're going to "reclaim" a word as if you were a minority group reclaiming a racial slur or something at least make it "socialism".

Wait.... you think George Clooney is hunky?!