Free Republic

Every Messiah needs his disciples. Barack Obama can count on one in Ann Curry. Reporting from a camp in Chad for refugees from Darfur in a segment on Today this morning, Curry proclaimed that “Obama’s message of hope has reached even here.” Her evidence? The fact that a sign had been tacked up on the door to a mud-brick structure renaming it “the Obama schoolhouse.” The video clip shows a sign in Arabic. Someone had helpfully translated it, scrawling “Obama” in chalk on the entranceway. View video,

Tell me if this movie doesn't have "bomb" written all over it. First of all it is being written by Aaron Sorkin. Secondly it is being produced by George Clooney. Finally, the movie theme has BDS (Bush Derangement Syndrome) at its center. Is this not the perfect formula for yet another leftwing movie that is doomed to die at the box office? How long before Hollywood finally figures out that such movies are always doomed to fail bigtime? The most recent such box office failure of a leftwing film is "Che" which so far has grossed a grand total of...

GENEVA (Reuters) - George Clooney has raised hundreds of thousands of dollars for U.S. presidential candidate Barack Obama by headlining an exclusive event for Americans in Geneva, one of the world's most affluent cities. The Hollywood actor and director, fresh from the world premiere of the Coen brothers' comedy "Burn After Reading" in Venice, slipped without fanfare into the Swiss city on Tuesday for his first appearance on behalf of the Democratic nominee. Some 170 contributors have paid $1,000 a head to attend a cocktail party with Clooney at a museum in Geneva's Old Town on Tuesday evening. And 75...

A man, they say, can be judged by his friends. If that's the case, then Barack Obama can surely be judged by George Clooney. The UK Daily Mail reported this week that the "Ocean's Eleven" actor regularly speaks with and text messages the presumptive Democratic nominee, advising him on everything from fashion to foreign policy. "George has been giving him advice on things such as presentation, public speaking and body language and he also emails him constantly about policy, especially the Middle East," stated a Democratic Party insider. "George is pushing him to be more 'balanced' on issues such as...

Hollywood A-lister George Clooney is planning to bring the story of Osama bin Laden's driver to the big screen. The actor's production company, Smokehouse, has bought the rights to a book about Osama bin Laden's driver, Salim Hamdan, according to The Observer newspaper. The Challenge by journalist Jonathan Mahler chronicles Hamdan's capture and imprisonment at Guantanamo Bay and his subsequent trial, defended by a US navy lawyer, Lt.-Cmdr. Charles Swift. Hamdan, from Yemen, was sentenced last week to 5 1/2 years in jail. It was the first sentence handed down to a Guantanamo Bay detainee by a U.S. military tribunal....

Academy award winning actor George Clooney is set to host a fundraiser for Barack Obama in Switzerland next month. The event, taking place on the evening of September 2 in Geneva, Switzerland will be split into two parts: a reception and a dinner. According to Obama’s National Finance Committee, tickets for the reception where Clooney will speak are going for $1,000, followed by a dinner at the home of NFC member Charles Adams for $10,000 a plate. Space for the dinner is limited to 75 guests.

… then why is he shilling for the United Nations?As Hollywood buffs and UN money-raisers already know, UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon has just named actor George Clooney as the UN’s newest Messenger of Peace, with a “special focus on UN peacekeeping.” Clooney, currently visiting Sudan, is expected to “receive his designation” Jan. 31st at UN headquarters in New York.This would all be great if UN peacekeeping actually produced peace. But the illusion that the UN is a grand force for good in this world deserves to be catalogued somewhere between World’s Most Amazing Scams and Believe It-Or-Not Best-in-Special-Effects. The reality...

Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon designated George Clooney as a U.N. "messenger of peace" Friday to promote the world body's activities, especially in its far-flung peacekeeping missions. The 46-year-old actor has been campaigning for an end to the 4 1/2-year war in Darfur and for humanitarian aid for the millions caught up in the conflict. He will become the ninth U.N. peace envoy. While many U.N. agencies have goodwill ambassadors to promote activities ranging from helping children and refugees to promoting human rights, "messengers of peace" are selected by the secretary-general to promote the broader work of the United Nations. U.N. spokeswoman...

Clooney boycott threat to OscarsJohn Harlow THE Hollywood star George Clooney is being credited with inspiring an actors’ boycott against film award ceremonies that threatens to reduce next weekend’s Golden Globe Awards to a shambles and is jeopardising the most important event in the Hollywood calendar, next month’s Oscars. This weekend the Screen Actors Guild announced that the 70 actors shortlisted for awards at the Globes will not be attending the ceremony in sympathy with scriptwriters who have been on strike for two months. Officially, television network NBC, which splits millions of advertising dollars with the Hollywood Foreign Press Association,...

Brad Pitt has spoken about his choice for next President of the United States – His good pal George Clooney! Speaking to Parade magazine, the Ocean’s Eleven actor encouraged his fellow co-star to run for political office, and if George fails then Ben Affleck should try out for President instead. He says: "I never thought about it. I have no desire at this point. Maybe I serve better by not going through that door. "George should do it! He'd be quite good. I think Ben Affleck should run." We think Ben Affleck would be better suited. He needs a career...

VENICE, Italy (AP) - Richard Gere and Charlize Theron added their voices to a chorus of stars taking swipes at the Bush administration at the Venice Film Festival. "How did we elect Bush twice?" Gere asked rhetorically while promoting his new film, "The Hunting Party." In the film, Gere plays a reporter determined to track down Radovan Karadizic—who has been hiding for more than a decade and is charged with genocide and crimes against humanity for his role as an alleged architect of the Bosnian war. "What's interesting to me is how do the bad people among us end up...

Sometimes, after you read a story from the MSM, you have to sit back and say to yourself, "just what in the heck that was all about?" Such is the case with the AP's latest titled "Clooney: Obama's like a rock star," a story that seems to present George Clooney's political opinion as if he is somehow a respected policy wonk, political pundit, or a well-known intellectual. There is no pretext for this story presenting Clooney's political meanderings and no sensible reason why the AP is presenting his blather as news. The AP just presents it straight forward as if...

It goes zero to 60 in about four seconds. Its top speed is 130 miles per hour. And it doesn't use an ounce of gasoline. It's the Tesla Roadster, a new car that's fueled entirely by electricity and could be hitting the lot just in time. Today the Energy Department reported that the average gallon of regular gasoline is now $3.10 -- a new nominal record price for the United States. Meet The New Electric Car! The Tesla Roadster is named after Nicola Tesla, the largely forgotten genius inventor of alternating current electricity, and it's the brainchild of Martin Eberhard,...

George Clooney may get his ultimate revenge against Bill O'Reilly if he is willing to be cast way against type. The author of "The Man Who Would Not Shut Up: The Rise of Bill O'Reilly," out today from St. Martin's Press, wants the activist actor to play the conservative Fox TV host, who's jousted with Clooney more than once, in a movie version. TV critic Marvin Kitman spent five years researching the book, interviewing O'Reilly 29 times. He says Clooney, who directed "Good Night, and Good Luck," about the great journalist Edward R. Murrow, could do it. "That's why they...

Last week it was George Clooney, with some timely cheerleading from ABC's Kate Snow, making the case for intervention in Darfur. Today, those bellicose boys of the Boston Globe jump on the Great Liberal War-in-Darfur bandwagon. In its editorial of this morning, the Globe lambastes "the great powers" for failing to take "effective action" to stop the killing and for "refusing to rescue the men, women, and children who are marked for death in the coming year." Why it demands US intervention in this war between rival Muslim factions, but condemns US intervention in a conflict between rival Muslim...

I finally got around to seeing a DVD of the movie, Syriana, starring George Clooney. Most of you know that it is about a greedy American oil company doing dirty deeds to regain access to certain Mideast oil concessions, and the film is definitely a hit job on American covert agencies and on American companies. It’s only a movie, a fantasy, but I'm getting very tired of the anti-war, anti-American antics of actors like Clooney and directors like Syriana's director, Stephen Gaghan

A bloody civil conflict between distinct Muslim factions that has left thousands dead and many more displaced. Should America be involved? For the MSM, obviously not if you're talking about Iraq. None of our business. A quagmire. We can't referee a civil war. Get out now.But Darfur, another bloody conflict between warring Muslim groups? Well, that's different. Not only can and should we be involved, but, we're blithely informed, "this is one we can fix."What's the difference? As more than one commentator has observed, liberals are all in favor of American intervention - so long as we have no national...

Actor George Clooney has spoken of the horrors he witnessed when he visited the Sudanese region of Darfur, saying the area urgently needs peacekeepers. The Hollywood star told the BBC that the levels of murder and rape convinced him ethnic cleansing was occurring. At least 200,000 people have died in the region and some 2.5 million are homeless after three years of fighting. The sharply deteriorating security has led to the withdrawal of 250 relief workers, leaving many vulnerable. Pressure Mr Clooney told the BBC's Laura Trevelyan, in New York, that everyone he met in Darfur told of several family...

CAIRO, Egypt - George Clooney arrived in Egypt on Tuesday, campaigning to raise awareness about killings in Sudan's Darfur region. The Oscar-winning actor was joined by fellow actor Don Cheadle and two former Olympians. He came to Egypt from China, where he has been since Friday, his publicist Stan Rosenfield said. Clooney organized the trip to make a personal plea to Chinese and Egyptian officials to use their ties with the Sudanese government to help stop the violence, Rosenfield said. Egypt has been a key mediator with neighboring Sudan, trying to convince the Khartoum government to allow a larger peacekeeping...

People Magazine’s November double issue named George Clooney “The Sexiest Man Alive” for the second time (1997 was the first). While I like looking at Clooney as much as the next girl, when he opens his mouth, all I can see is Michael Moore. If Michael Moore is a dumbed-down Noam Chomsky (and he is), George Clooney is a dumbed-down Michael Moore. And that’s not sexy. Call me old-fashioned, but one trait I’ve always looked for in a man is that he be more intelligent than I am. And more manly. But when I see George Clooney, all I can...