February 04, 2004
MOORE WOBBLES
Michael Moore seems to be backing away from his earlier endorsement of Wesley Clark:
"I will go out and enthusiastically support whoever the (Democratic) candidate is," Moore said.
Too bad that candidate won’t be Joe Lieberman. If I was Moore, I’d be worried about Bush losing; his whole lazy, fact-slashing act is dependent on the Evil One remaining in the White House. Ken Layne suspects a conspiracy:
Dubya's secret commandos Michael Moore & Al Franken have done such a good job since 2000, making sure the sane voter tunes out all the "Bush = Hitler" crap. I hope Karl Rove is paying those boys well, because Christ knows they're earning it.
The chances of any Democrat winning remain slender. P.J. O’Rourke explains why:
None of the major Democratic candidates has any Kennedy charisma, or even any Carter moral paradigm. There's something the matter with each of them.
He’s not wrong. And they keep saying weird, crazy things. Here, for example, is Wesley Clark:
I'm running for president because I long for a better America ... an America where we don't just preach our faith - we practice it.
Liberals who get spooked whenever Bush mentions Jesus ought to be alarmed by Clark’s apparent longing for universal religious observance. Not that it matters much; Clark, a winner in Oklahoma, is on the way out.
UPDATE. As well as jumping the shark, Howard Dean also drops the fish. Deaniac Kate O’Connor reports:
We had a good day today in Washington. We started the day in Spokane where the Gov (Doctor) toured a hospital and attended a town hall meeting on health care. We then flew to Seattle where the Gov (Doctor) toured a health care clinic and caught a fish at the famous Seattle fish market. I don't know how many of you have ever seen it (I hadn't), but the Gov had to catch a huge fish that was thrown at him by one of the workers at the fish market. The Gov dropped the fish the first time, but caught it on his second try. The fish was huge and slimely so I was surprised that he caught it at all!
A few weeks ago Dean was the frontrunner. Now people are throwing fish at him.
(Via contributor J.F. Beck, who is investigating claims that the fish was plastic)
Posted by Tim Blair at February 4, 2004 07:36 PMSilly Wesley Clark. Everyone knows the Bible isn't meant to be taken literally* -- when Jesus made that remark about camels going through eyes of needles (Matthew 19:24), he was really just talking about hypocritical wealthy Democrats.
*Except for that sodomy stuff in Leviticus. But not the meat-and-dairy stuff or the mixed-fibre-clothing stuff.
Posted by: vaara at February 4, 2004 at 08:48 PMThe whole thesis of Bowling for Columbine was that the killers were driven to kill by the militaristic, warmongering, gun-happy, kill-crazed, fascistic nature of American society--then (c. 1999) on display in the bombing of Kosovo.
So who does Michael Moore endorse for president? Denny Kucinich, man of peace? No!--he endorses the very militaristic, warmongering, kill-crazed fascist who directed the bombing of Kosovo: Gen. Wesley Clark--Facilitator of Columbine!
Am I the only one who sees an inconsistency here?
Posted by: Mike at February 4, 2004 at 09:09 PMAnd CNN, what's with the quote marks in your headline around the word quest? He said the word didn't he?
During the 2000 presidential campaign, Moore mocked at length those who voted Gore just so Bush wouldn't be president. Yet this is the position he's taking this time around. I'd dig for quotes if it weren't so late...
Posted by: Andjam at February 4, 2004 at 10:38 PMCan't stand Moore and his groupies. Following is from linked article (above):
"He also described his new movie, "Fahrenheit 9/11," which is set to come out this fall.
"It's about using the death of 3,000 people as an excuse to enact a right-wing agenda," Moore said"
So THAT's what 9/11 was all about. It was an excuse to enact a 'right-wing agenda'. Why didn't I see this before? I must be blind!!
I bet there are quite a few Afghanis and Iraqis who are giving thanks to Allah for this 'right-wing agenda'.
I wonder if Moore ever thinks about the Iraqis who were tortured for DECADES by Saddam and Sons?
Did he ever see any of the pictures or listen to any of the stories told by those who lived under Saddam?
Perhaps he thinks the dead Iraqis were also just excuses to enact the 'right-wing agenda'? What about the Afghanis? Did they suffer under the Taliban to provide excuses as well?
I wonder if Moore is aware of how crass and unfeeling he appears to be by making such a statement in the face of such suffering?
I can imagine someone like Moore making similar statements in the late 1930's. He would have made a picture about how the dead Poles, French, etc. provided an excuse for Churchill to enact his agenda for the UK.
Posted by: Chris Josephson at February 4, 2004 at 11:35 PMBlair, P.J. O'Rourke, Steyn and a glass of red wine.
Can't think of a more enjoyable evening, with my pants still on.
Posted by: Razor at February 4, 2004 at 11:58 PMNoticed you didn’t quote these other bits from the linked PJ O'Rourke piece, like:
"Our president's a born-again, America was founded by religious lunatics … religious loonies can even get their own state, like Utah."
Bush's No Child Left Behind act is "...idiotic," and when talking about Bush's faith-based initiatives, needed the audience to remind him, "What's that thing called where they drag the charities into the government?"
But yeah the Dem candiates are also a bunch of egocentric overfunded loonies too - as are you Chris Josephson
I mean what the f**k does - "He would have made a picture about how the dead Poles, French, etc. provided an excuse for Churchill to enact his agenda for the UK." - mean?
Posted by: Colonel House at February 5, 2004 at 12:00 AMRazor, with Blair, P.J. O'Rourke, Steyn and a glass of red wine, why would you still have your pants on?
;->=
Posted by: JorgXMcKie at February 5, 2004 at 12:18 AMCunnel House:
Well, I would venture that, given Moore's propensity to twist reality, what he means is that Moore would have made a movie wherein Churchill, great defender of Empire and old-fashioned conservative, would be portrayed, not as standing up to Hitler because Hitler was a megalomaniacal lunatic, but b/c what Churchill really wanted was simply to preserve the Emmpire.
Therefore, getting the Brits to fight a war (and in the process, keep him in power, and allow him to lock up a "naked fakir" and other threats to teh Empire) was the REAL motivation for Churchill's actions, and he pursued it regardless of the deaths of thousands of Poles, Frenchmen, etc.
Considering Moore's own cri de coeur of September 12, 2001, when he asked why the people who attacked the WTC hadn't targeted Bush voters instead, since NY state had gone for Gore, I'd say that anything that sick f*ck has to say is pretety irrelevant, but I'll leave it to you to defend him.
BTW, your namesake is probably spinning in his grave, from your purloinment of his name....
Posted by: Dean at February 5, 2004 at 02:09 AMThose silly Seattleites... you're supposed to slap him with a 5-lb Tuna, you dolts!
Send 'em to school and teach 'em to read - all they do is look at the pictures...
Posted by: mojo at February 5, 2004 at 02:24 AMActually, that fish-catching thing is a joke we play on out-of-towners.... we throw fish at them, and they think they're acting 'local' by trying to catch it. Silly politicans...
Posted by: rosignol at February 5, 2004 at 05:58 AMDon't you see? Its all a conspiracy! Years ago, George Bush Senior went a meet a teenaged Saddam whre they cooked up a plot that fourty-five years later Saddam would kill hundreds of thousands of Iraqis so that Dubya could overthrow him.
Get it? Nah, now whose being naive here?
Posted by: Quentin George at February 5, 2004 at 06:57 AMHey, I'm one of those warmongering, imperialistic 'Murricans, so leave us alone to do our empire building....uh, oh, GWB (PlasticTurkeyMan) says we can't keep Iraq - we have to give it back - darn!
Posted by: nashvillecat at February 5, 2004 at 07:21 AMHey, I'm one of those warmongering, imperialistic 'Murricans, so leave us alone to do our empire building....uh, oh, GWB (PlasticTurkeyMan) says we can't keep Iraq - we have to give it back - darn!
Posted by: nashvillecat at February 5, 2004 at 07:21 AMRazor - you rock
Colonel House - you suck
nashvillecat - you got more sense than GWB - I say 'Murrica should keep Iraq and sell it on e-bay. If'n Al-Quaida or Iran really want it, let 'em pay for it ...
Posted by: Arik at February 5, 2004 at 08:01 AM(Tim) "I will go out and enthusiastically support whoever the (Democratic) candidate is," Moore said.
Best news I've heard all day. May it work as well for the eventual Demo front-runner as it has for Clark.
(Bill) Fuck Michael Moore.
No! Don't do it! That's why the whale exploded!
JorgXMcKie - do I come across as a homosexual? I apologise if I have mislead you.
Arik - thank you. Your incisive commenting is also appreciated as it removes the requirement for me to get bogged down in the debate. Keep up the good work. Rock on....
Posted by: Razor at February 5, 2004 at 12:30 PMDid anyone hear Dean's concession speech yesterday? Here's an excerpt:
"Not only are we going to lose New Hampshire, we're going to lose South Carolina and Oklahoma and Arizona and North Dakota and New Mexico, and we're going to lose California and Texas and New York. And we're going to lose South Dakota and Oregon and Washington and Michigan. And then we're going to lose Washington, D.C. To lose the White House again! Yeaaaaaaarggggggh!"
Posted by: Alex Robson at February 5, 2004 at 02:20 PMFish tossing?!?
Call Greenpeace. Call PETA. Equal Rights For All Species!
And while I've got your attention, I don't want those chips that have been baking under the sunlamp all day, give me some of those you just pulled out of the fryer.
Please.