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A certain amount of celebrity glow has long been a part of both political parties’ gatherings. But thanks in part to the youthful charisma of Senator Barack Obama, the presumptive nominee, the Democratic convention, which begins on Monday in Denver, is shaping up as an unlikely hot spot for the music world, with multiplatinum rappers, indie-rock scenesters, D.J.’s and Jennifer Lopez arriving by the van- and private planeload to perform, rally or schmooze with the political elite. “It’s the Sundance Film Festival for politicos,” said Laura Dawn, the cultural director of MoveOn.org, who also happens to sing with Moby... Kanye...

Ten years ago today, U.S. embassies in Kenya and Tanzania were bombed, causing a devastating loss of life and signaling that the United States faced new and more serious terrorist threats abroad and potentially at home. That potential became a reality on Sept. 11, 2001, when the World Trade Center and the Pentagon were attacked, causing an even more devastating loss of life and sending an even clearer signal regarding the necessity of a smart and focused response to a challenge that could no longer be ignored. Unfortunately, President Bush did not get the message. He and his neoconservative advisers...

Remember Joe Wilson? He's the diplomat who went to Niger to investigate Bush administration claims that Saddam Hussein had tried to buy yellowcake uranium, a raw material used in building nuclear bombs, from Africa. He wrote in a July 6, 2003, New York Times op-ed that he had spent the previous February in Niger, "drinking sweet mint tea and meeting with dozens of people ... associated with the country's uranium business. It did not take long to conclude that it was highly doubtful that any such transaction had ever taken place." A story that has to be the most underplayed...

Cindy Sheehan and Code Pink may be surprised to learn that Barak Hussein Obama has surrounded himself with foreign policy advisors that want the United States Military to preemptively attack a sovereign nation. Wesley Clark, a widely-touted prospect to be Obama’s VP, has publicly called for 5000 American troops to be sent to Darfur in Sudan. Anthony Lake, Secretary of State prospect, and Susan E. Rice, candidate for National Security Advisor, have called not only for the insertion of American troops preemptively, but insist it should be done unilaterally if necessary. The three are ex-Clintonistas who were instrumental in developing...

he two-star general who led an Army investigation into the horrific detainee abuse at Abu Ghraib has accused the Bush administration of war crimes and is calling for accountability. In his 2004 report on Abu Ghraib, then-Major General Anthony Taguba concluded that "numerous incidents of sadistic, blatant, and wanton criminal abuses were inflicted on several detainees." He called the abuse "systemic and illegal." And, as Seymour M. Hersh reported in the New Yorker, he was rewarded for his honesty by being forced into retirement. Now, in a preface to a Physicians for Human Rights report based on medical examinations of...

Tendentious Antiwar Scholarship by: Michael P. Tremoglie, April 01, 2008 The mainstream media is aghast and agog reporting yet another study, from another expert, claiming how wasteful the war in Iraq is, how Bush lied, and how the war is killing the country. This study is contained in a book titled, The Three Trillion Dollar War: The True Cost of the Iraq Conflict, authored by economist Joseph Stiglitz and Linda Bilmes. The authors worked for the Clinton administration. Stiglitz was the former Chair of the Council of Economic Advisors and Bilmes was also an economic adviser. Newspapers such as the...

LOS ANGELES - Barack Obama picked up the endorsement of a leading anti-war group Friday and said Democratic presidential rival Hillary Rodham Clinton still has not adequately explained her vote to go into Iraq. Obama told reporters in a news conference that, even though Clinton explains how she would like to end the war, her explanation for her vote leading into the war is disingenuous. He said his opposition against the war from the start will make him the stronger rival to Republican front-runner and war backer John McCain in the general election. Obama's long-standing opposition to the war helped...

Hollywood Gone Mad About Serbia World`s most famous stars will probably advocate the defence of Serbian territorial integrity next month already. Karmen Horvat Tomislav Tustić After German Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung daily wrote last week that peacemaker George Clooney and sensual Sharon Stone decided to aid their friends in the preservation of Serbian territorial integrity, other Hollywood leaders decided to voice their support for "dependent Kosovo". - The world's most famous stars will, most probably already next month, stand in defence of the southern Serbian province in Hollywood, the heart of international movie industry – The Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung writes. -...

...But Bush hatred is different. It's not that this time members of the intellectual class have been swept away by passion and become votaries of anger and loathing. Alas, intellectuals have always been prone to employ their learning and fine words to whip up resentment and demonize the competition. Bush hatred, however, is distinguished by the pride intellectuals have taken in their hatred, openly endorsing it as a virtue and enthusiastically proclaiming that their hatred is not only a rational response to the president and his administration but a mark of good moral hygiene....On the contrary, they argued, Bush hatred...

WASHINGTON (AP) -- Speaker Nancy Pelosi says the House will vote as early as Friday on legislation that would pay $50 billion for the war in Iraq but require that President Bush start bringing troops home.

It doesn't matter how many Oscar winners are in front of or behind the camera — audiences are proving to be conscientious objectors when it comes to this fall's surge of antiwar and anti-Bush films. Both "In the Valley of Elah" and, more recently, "Rendition" drew minuscule crowds upon their release, which doesn't bode well for the ongoing stream of films critical of the Iraq war and the Bush administration's wider war on terror."Rendition," which features three Oscar winners in key roles, grossed $4.1 million over the weekend in 2,250 screens for a ninth-place finish. A re-release of "The Nightmare...

(That's one of Cindy Sheehan's sycophants who travels with her, holding the flag upside down)(It was no accident. They've all got them upside down.)

'WHEN WE go to war for oil, we say we go to war for oil," the Russian military officer said to the British officer. "When you go to war for oil, you say you go to war to liberate people." Can you guess the name of the movie that contained this line? Was it Brian DePalma's anti-war propaganda film "Redacted?" Phil Donahue's "Body of War?" Nick Broomfield's "Battle for Haditha"? It could have been any of these movies. After all, the "war for oil" mantra is a staple of the anti-American/anti-Iraq war crowd. DePalma's film relates the tale of a...

Actors Richard Gere and Charlize Theron joined in on a bash, but this time it had nothing to do with a party; instead it had to do with bashing the President of the United States and the war in Iraq. While at the Venice Film Festival, both actors openly criticized the Bush administration. "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...

When a South Korean student began his killing spree on the grounds of Virginia Tech back in April this year, slaughtering 32 people, the incident generated extensive coverage worldwide and grabbed the headlines in the regional press as well. There were editorial comments too in the regional press expressing total shock and questioning the state of mind of Cho, the Korean student behind the carnage. And in the letters pages of the local papers readers expressed sympathy and compassion for the families of the fallen. An equally gruesome incident happened this month but hardly a line appeared in our newspapers....

Correcting The Record Myths V. Facts: Debunking Newsweek's Article on Afghanistan: “The Rise of Jihadistan” (October 2, 2006) INCORRECT NEWSWEEK CLAIM: “The 2003 invasion of Iraq did more than divert essential resources from Afghanistan; it created a test lab for new insurgent weapons and tactics that have since been adopted by the Taliban.” RESPONSE: The assertion that the Iraq invasion “diverted” resources from Afghanistan is a talking point of critics of the Bush administration. It is an opinion, not a fact.

HOLLYWOOD - Hollywood activist George Clooney has launched a scathing attack on the media, accusing journalists and producers of neglecting their responsibilities to their country. The Ocean's Eleven star is a vocal opponent of President George W. Bush--and he believes the media has betrayed the public by not reporting the truth about the Bush administration. And Clooney, who joined Holocaust survivor Elie Wiesel last week to address the United Nations Security Council about the problems in Darfur, blames the American public for focusing on reality TV shows instead of real news.

Shock and AweI visited the 9/11 memorial in Wesley Bolin Plaza Tuesday and I was stunned by what I saw.  Here's how the Governor describes the memorial.According to governor spokeswoman Shilo Mitchell , Napolitano described the memorial as being " unique, bold, educational and unforgettable," she said. " The memorial uses the sun to articulate words and thoughts."The memorial is an elevated flat ring with phrases cut through the metal.  Throughout the day, the sun shines through the ring and phrases become visible on the side walk.                        What kind of phrases?  Politically correct phrases that bash America.  That's what...

TORONTO -- Five years after 9-11, it's apparent that we all aren't getting along. And the political left is throwing plenty of mean punches. A case in point is that new Bush snuff movie, "Death of a President." Some might say that "snuff movie" is too strong a term -- but how else to describe a movie that clearly revels in the prospect of George W. Bush's being assassinated? Anyone who doubts that movies still have the power to stir up passions ought to come here, to the Toronto International Film Festival, which rates as the most important movie conclave...