This certainly isn't the most significant thing you'll do today, but when I read this poll it just burned me up.  (No Global Warming pun intended, almost).

I wrote this as a comment on Mike's diary, but I'd like to diary it simply because as an entertainment industry professional, I have a different perspective on this than some.

I have always been one of Mike Stark's biggest fans and supporters.  From way back before CALLING ALL WINGNUTS.  I often wished I had Mike's creativity and cajones when it comes to fighting for what is right.  I think Mike is a huge asset to our community - a gem, in fact - and that progressive politics would not even exist without the Mike Starks of the world.  

But I gotta join the naysayers in regards to his O'Reilly confrontation today - I think it's way, WAY too much to go to a person's house.  

Yes, it's well within your first ammendment rights.  And Yes, O'Reilly is a public figure.  But I think when it comes to going to a person's private home and accosting him and his neighbors, it borders on harrassment.  My perspective after the jump.

Like many of you progressives who are on every progressive organization's email list, I just received an email from Michael Moore about SICKO, encouraging us all to go out and see it.  What he really means is, see it NOW. Today or tomorrow.

I agree with him.  It's vital to the film's survival that as many of you, your friends and family as humanly possible go see it this weekend.

This isn't about enriching Michael Moore...it's about keeping the film alive.

Any readers of this blog old enough to remember the 1977 movie, Midnight Express?   Link to it here at IMDB http://imdb.com/...

This award-winning film made a huge splash back then.  It was based on the true story of Billy Hayes, a 20 year old college kid visiting Turkey, who decided the fastest way to pay off his student loans was to smuggle about 2k of hashish back to America, taped to his body.  The kid was a really bad (and obvious) smuggler, he was caught, convicted by the Turkish system, and ultimately ended up with the equivalent of a life sentence (30 years by Turkish law.)  The film detailed the beatings he underwent in prison, the corruption of the system, homosexual rape, etc.  I remember seeing it at age 15 and being shocked - "This poor, innocent kid - one mistake and he gets this?"  

(Much more below the jump:)

   

 
As Jack Nicholson famously exclaimed in his iconic role as Colonel Jessup in A Few Good Men, "You can't handle the truth."  

Turns out the Powers that Be have believed we can't handle the truth for a long, long time.  From the Kennedy assassination and Oswald's magic bullet to the atrocities of Vietnam, to the pretenses for this immoral war on Iraq, we've been fed a bill of goods provided us by those in charge - to keep us happily ignorant, and to keep their agendas churning away smoothly.  We've even got our own bought-and-paid for stenographer's corps comfortably ensconsced to help our leaders "catapult the propaganda."

So what happens to those who still believe in the core principles of journalism?  The ones who believe the public should get the facts - no matter how shocking - and be able to decide for themselves?  Today, we learned three more have been murdered.  One more, on a less crucial scale, has been fired.  So what is this "war" really about - from our own shores to the far reaches of Russia, to Africa, to Europe?

More below...

I just returned from my second cousin's wedding - a lesbian wedding - that took place in a high-profile, old-school, wealthy right wing community in the deep-ish South.  The beautiful, elegant, casual yet in most ways traditional ceremony - and the family involvement that made it happen - brought tears to my eyes.  My second cousin and her partner looked beautiful.  The love and absolute commitment between them was palpable - rarely have I seen such pure, raw emotion in most heterosexual weddings I've attended (my own aside - I was just remarried in April!)

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Actforchange sent me one of those wonderful "autoemail" forms, requesting that I sign it and send it to the press asking them why they chose to do a blackout on Colbert's speech.  Sure, I thought.  But duh, do we really need to ask them that?  I sat down to personalize it a bit, and ended up with very little of their form letter left.

FYI, blowing my horn I'm well-trained and usually very effective at persuasive writing and argument.  They key in the "gentlemanly art" of persuasion is, not to directly offend or insult your audience; stay unemotional and logical, and build an irrefutable case.  

As you will see, I failed miserably in this email.  This is not persuasion. I made it personal.  I couldn't hold back. Because I am simply disgusted.  Disgusted with the MSM. Go see "GOOD NIGHT AND GOOD LUCK" if you want to see what the press used to be.  But don't go to the Correspondent's Dinner.  

Anyway, my letter below the fold.

Okay, I'm giving in, and pimping my book here on DKos.

Does anyone here know Cesar Millan, the "Dog Whisperer" on the Nat Geo Channel?  Well, he'll be on with Janeane and Sam tonight on Majority Report...and I'm proud to say that I'm the co-author of his new book, "Cesar's Way, The Natural, Everyday Guide to Understanding and Correcting Common Dog Problems."

By way of introduction, I've been posting (mostly comments) on DKos since the 2004 election.  I'm a Film/TV Producer/Writer/Director who got to know Cesar through co-exec producing and co-writing his show.  His wife Ilusion is an amazing "how does she do it all?" businesswoman/mom/wife, who has also become a very close friend.  They are both wonderful "what you see is what you get" people who have (and still do) worked their tails off to be able enjoy the success they are just now beginning to experience.

What a day.  What disappointments...and no, I didn't really expect the filibuster to go through.

I do admit I hoped for more.  A lot more, in fact, from those we trusted to represent us.  Maryscott's deal with the devil from NM is as pure an example as I've seen that these men and women we've sent to Washington on OUR dime, on the sweat of OUR backs...only view all of this as a game and a meal ticket.

Yes, MSC, we are all indeed FUCKED.  All I want to do right now is turn off the news and the internet(s) forever.  I want to lie on a beach and drink something pink or green with an umbrella and a kick in it, read a trashy novel and watch the sunset.  I want to bury my head in the sand, move to Canada or Switzerland or Ireland or SOMEWHERE ELSE.

But like all of us, I'll be back at it tomorrow.  And in the meantime, FREEP this poll.  It will make you feel better.

(The poll below the fold.)

http://www.RAWSTORY.com HAS IT! (via http://www.Bradblog.com):

http://rawstory.com/news/2005/Two_Ohio_election_officials_indicted_over_2004_reco_0831.html

"Two Cuyahoga County elections officials were indicted Tuesday on charges of not handling ballots correctly during the recount of the 2004 presidential election, the (registration-restricted) Plain Dealer reports Wednesday."

(more below)

The Guardian has a devastating article about the US hitting Iran - and makes some good points why our Admin would have powerful motive to do so.

LINK:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/comment/story/0,3604,1549198,00.html

The International community is taking Bush's "every option is on the table" remark damned seriously, people, and so should we.  This isn't empty rhetoric.  This is deadly business and part of the reason Bush seems to think ignoring Cindy Sheehan isn't going to hurt him, any.  He and the neocons have bigger fish to fry - at least, in their warped PNAC-addled minds.

(See quote from the article below the fold:)

...re: the September 11th Exploitation March in Washington:

Dear Mr. Jones,

As a frequent Washington Post reader, a friend of one of your retired top columnists now a best-selling author,  and a sometimes practitioner of television journalism myself, I implore you to see the light and withdraw all the Post's support for the Washington March on Sept. 11th.

(read the rest of the letter below)

This post started as a short commentary response/paen to Cosette about the fact that her psych-doctor friends think Bush is headin' for the deep end of the swimming pool.  I've written other comments about this today (since I'm on a writing deadline and my whole life today is DKos and the computer!!)...

So here's my response to her/him: it kind of expanded to the width of a diary.

MY DEAR COSETTE: I'm glad you and your doc friends noticed.  I posted on an open thread earlier that I had noted Bush is increasingly referring to HiSSelf in the third person these days -

i.e. the speech that got Cindy all fired up, he referred to himself as "The Commander in Cheif"....and today he used that term and then "The President" - twice.  And remember that infamous phrase, "Being the President.  That's Power."  I'm not talking about really appropriate times to use these titles - I'm talking about Bush using them as replacements for the Personal Pronoun.

Again, they are very conservative-leaning.

Here's the latest poll stats:

Do you think President Bush should meet with Cindy Sheehan?
Yes 58%
No 42%
Do you agree with Sheehan?
Yes 53%
No 47%
How effective do you think her protest will be?
Not at all 50%
Somewhat 31%
Very 19%

(More)

I'm not sure of the source for this, as it was sent to my by another activist friend.  I'm just going to include the most apropos paragraphs here.

What Doctorow points out is what Cindy Sheehan - the mother of the soldier killed in action - discovered when she met with Bush for "condolences."  The man has the cold dead eyes of a shark; he doesn't care about the troops - he doesn't care about Americans.  

He is the worst kind of sociopath...the kind who can fake it well enough to make it.  So are the rest of his amoral circle.

When will the rest of America wake up and get this?

The Doctorow excerpt after the fold:

Once again, the conservative to moderate-leaning AOL membership has spoken - FIRE KARL ROVE!

Here's their instant poll:

What do you think should happen to Rove?
He should be fired 73%
Too soon to say 14%
Nothing 11%
He should be reprimanded 3%
What do you think will happen to Rove?
Nothing 57%
Too soon to say 16%
He will be fired 15%
He will be reprimanded 12%
Total Votes: 34,883

(more on the implications below)

Any defense Rove may be contemplating that there was some sort of inadvertent "slip of the tongue" involved in his mention of Plame to Cooper (and Lord knows who else) should fall short of the mark when one takes into account the bigger picture here - the runup to war, and the single-minded plan the administration had to bully and threaten the intelligence community into sticking by the official story about those oh so elusive WMD's.

It all goes back to lying - and not just listening to "flawed intelligence" - but actually manipulating and planting FAKE intelligence.  If that ain't a crime, I don't know what is.

As has been diaried here in the recent past, pure "vindictiveness" against Wilson probably was not be the sole reason Rove outed Plame.  Wilson was too close to the truth...but so were many in the CIA. Including, probably, Plame herself.  And in order to keep the truth from getting out to the public, the entire intelligence community had to be castrated, or, silenced by force or threat.

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New, very slick television ads have just started airing across both cable and broadcast networks. We're going to be seeing them everywhere soon.The new 20 million dollar "Be All That You Can Be" Campaign has begun with a bang

This new campaign is called "Help Them Find Their Strength". The spots are top of the line expensive,beautifully shot, mostly intimate, long-lens close-ups of good looking young people, with an occasional cut to their concerned parent.  I know a couple of the actors who play the parents in the spots - these are A-list film and television character actors.  The producers of these spots clearly went all out.

(More below)