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"And the KGB, I think, was an honorable place to work. And it, it gave people in the former Soviet Union, a communist country, an opportunity to do something important and worthwhile."

The Venezuelan leader, Hugo Chávez, has not had things all his own way recently, but at least he has famous friends. Falling oil prices and some significant losses in recent elections may have delivered blows to Hugo Chávez's self-styled socialist revolution, but he can still count on the support of Sean Penn.

IF there was any question as to whether Steven Soderbergh's "Che" portrays the Marxist revolutionary as a hero, the four-hour movie will be shown next month in Cuba at Havana's New Latin American Film Festival. Event president Alfredo Guevara said in July that "Che" would not be shown if it included any "attacks" on Fidel Castro, who was Che's comrade in arms. But the film, starring Benicio Del Toro as the T-shirt icon, evidently passed muster with the dictator's regime. The stars and filmmakers will have to get US permission to attend the screenings, unless they sneak in like most...

NEW YORK (AFP) — A rare bird in the political world, the US Communist Party is feeling rather smug in these days of capitalist turmoil. At the party's New York headquarters on 23rd Street in Manhattan, regional party chairman Libero Della Piana, 36, laid out why he thinks Marxist-Leninism's time has finally come. "We are very excited, we feel that we are at a turning point," Della Piana, an imposing half-Italian, half-African American with a pony tail, told AFP. "We can afford to be less on the defensive for the first time since Ronald Reagan, and we can say our...

The clueless aristocrats have descendents in spoiled college kids who think it’s trendy to idolize Communist revolutionary Ernesto “Che” Guevara. Che’s face is emblazoned on T-shirts; he was glamorized by the movie The Motorcycle Diaries; and Time magazine described him as “a potent symbol of rebellion.” But few of the college hipsters who admire Che know what he actually stood for.

From Hillary Clinton Forum Yesterday, 09:44 PM Maddie Kaddison New Member = <100 Posts Join Date: Sep 2008 Posts: 99 Poster Rank: #454 Obama's supporters scare me. Here is a comment I just read from this story (the story that Dean Reynolds of CBS wrote about Obama's "stinky" plane etc): Quote: I support Obama, but I disagree on some major issues. One is that we need to use major authoritarian measures against wingnuts and theocrats to save this country. That in particular includes deprogramming institutions and a Gitmo like camp to deal with the worst wingnuts. These people should be...

<p>A founding member of the campaign of Democratic presidential nominee Sen. Barack Obama of Illinois met in New York City tonight with Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.</p> <p>Jodie Evans, who co-hosted Obama's first major fundraiser in Hollywood in February 2007 just after Obama announced his candidacy and is a top fundraiser and donor to Obama's campaign, led a delegation of leftist anti-American groups that held a private meeting near the United Nations. The stated purpose of the meeting was to "serve as an opening for diplomatic resolution" to prevent war between Iran and the United States.</p>

Just...wow. I just saw a commercial for this horrid-looking flick. Is this supposed to be a comedy or a satire? Surely it is not a serious film. The acting looks horrendous - like some kind of low-rent high school production. What is the scoop on this deal?

It may be political poison for U.S. government officials to talk to Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, but the taboo does not extend to NPR. NPR’s Steve Inskeep interviewed the controversial leader this afternoon in New York and pulled no punches. Ahmadinejad is in the United States to address the United Nation’s General Assembly, which is meeting this week. In an often heated conversation, according to the transcript, Inskeep confronts Ahmadinejad on Israel, “wiping countries off the map and chopping off hands” — and the Beatles and Led Zeppelin. Ahmadinejad, for his part, denies that Iran has provoked the United States,...

Sen. Barack Obama “chose politics rather than the national interest” by sidestepping the opportunity for a bipartisan stand against Iran’s nuclear drive, Sen. John McCain said Thursday. The Republican presidential candidate leveled the charge after the organizers of the “Stop Iran Now” rally, planned for next Monday in New York City, withdrew an invitation to his running mate, Gov. Sarah Palin, following appeals by Democrats. “Governor Palin was pleased to accept an invitation to address this rally and show her resolve on this grave national security issue,” McCain said in a statement. “Regrettably that invitation has since been withdrawn under...

God's blessings on America would be good. I'd ask for prosperity, generosity, intelligence, opportunity, and peace. Apparently some people think of other divine blessings. Like the Bronze Age Hebrews, they pray for God's blessing in war. From McCain's Website, we learn his position on Iraq: "I know the pain war causes. I understand the frustration caused by our mistakes in this war. And I regret sincerely the additional sacrifices imposed on the brave Americans who defend us. But I also know the toll a lost war takes on an army and on our country's security." McCain says that Obama's policies...

In New York, U.S. District Judge Alvin Hellerstein has ordered the release of eight more grand jury transcripts from the famous 1951 spy case that led to the conviction of the husband and wife pro-Soviet spy team of Julius and Ethel Rosenberg. Reuters reports this story as if there is some cloud of doubt still hanging over the Rosenberg's conviction despite that their guilt is no longer debatable. Yet here is Reuters giving cover to those who stubbornly wish to cast doubt on the U.S. prosecution of the Rosenbergs. It also gives Reuters and U.S. detractors the opportunity once again...

From The Sunday Times August 10, 2008 Oliver Stone's George Bush biopic Oliver Stone's Bush biopic plays it for laughs, but it's every bit as controversial as JFK and Nixon Christopher Goodwin You have to admit it’s a great question: “How did George W Bush go from alcoholic bum to the most powerful figure in the world?” That’s what the American film-maker Oliver Stone says he wants to explain in his forthcoming movie biopic, entitled, simply enough, W. Not surprisingly, Texas-sized dust storms have already blown up in Hollywood and Washington over the film, which is being rushed through production...

International answer in conjuntion with other left wing america hating marxist groups are holding a festival on July 26th to celebrate the Cuban revolution and the 55 years of totalitarian oppresion by the Communist government of fidel castro in Cuba. Below is an article discussing it. It can also be read at http://www.pephost.org/site/PageServer?pagename=ANSWERLA July 26 "Noche Cubana" Party & Fundraiser Celebrate 55 Years Of Cuba's Revolutionary Struggle A Night of Music, Food, Film, Dancing & Solidarity with Cuba July 26th is celebrated around the world as the beginning of the Cuban revolutionary struggle. On July 26 1953, over 130 young...

What distinguishes us from all other nations is the range and depth of the First Amendment's expressive individual liberties against government control of what we say and think. Having researched and written about it for more than 50 years, I can attest that the most compelling readable account of its tumultuous and often imperiled history is the newly published "Freedom for the Thought That We Hate: A Biography of the First Amendment" by Anthony Lewis (Basic Books). Part of the title comes from Supreme Court Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes' warning of the most powerful need of the First Amendment, especially...

Editor - From reading The Chronicle's banner-line propaganda, which teases the "star envy" piece within ("A modest proposal for celebs on the skids," Thursday), I could only hope this great city was more clever than its increasingly lame-brain paper. In its unequivocal naming of Chavez as dictator on A1, either "Pop Culture" man Peter Hartlaub or his equally biased Chronicle editor, doesn't quite understand that Venezuela's President Chavez was democratically elected, and that dictators don't lose constitutional referendums. The Chronicle should take comfort that the New York Times generally does no better than them here. Yet, in the paper's attack...

SAN RAFAEL Sean Penn may soon be a single man walking. Robin Wright Penn has filed for divorce from her actor, director husband. The divorce papers were filed on Dec. 21 with the Marin County Superior Court. Wright Penn cited irreconcilable differences as a reason for the split. The split was first reported by the Web site CelebTV.com. The couple has two teenage children and seeking joint custody of the children. Penn directed "Into The Wild" and starred as a death row inmate in "Dead Man Walking."

If MoveOn.org runs another ad in The New York Times, it will have a cartoon motif. The liberal group is currently trying to raise money to buy space in the Times for the full-page ad. In the ad, cartoon-like panels show George W. Bush talking with Karl Rove. Bush says: "Karl, after Iraq, they'll never elect a Republican in '08." Rove replies: "Threaten Iran. Talk about World War III." Bush: "But now everyone knows they've stopped developing nukes." Rove: "We never let the truth stop us before."

<p>From NBC's Domenico Montanaro Sean Penn will endorse Kucinich this afternoon at a press conference in San Francisco, a source close to the Hollywood actor said. He will also be speaking on "the Constitution, the media and Dennis Kucinich," the source said. Expect a political speech.</p>

"I'm proud of my university today," Stina Reksten, a 28-year-old Columbia graduate student from Norway, told the New York Times. "I don't want to confuse the very dire human-rights situation in Iran with the issue here, which is freedom of speech. This is about academic freedom." Isn't it always? But enough about Iran, let's talk about me. The same university that shouted down an American anti-illegal-immigration activist and the same university culture that just deemed former Harvard honcho Larry Summers too misogynist to be permitted on a California campus is now congratulating itself over its commitment to "academic freedom." True,...

During his visit to New York this week, Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad attacked every basic assumption upon which Western civilization is predicated. Ahmadinejad offered up his attacks while extolling his vision of Islamic global domination. Refusing to note his existential challenge to the Free World, the Western media concentrated their coverage of his trip on his statements regarding specific Western policy goals. His rejection of the UN Security Council's authority to take action against Iran's illicit nuclear weapons program; his championing of the Palestinian cause and Israel's destruction; his denials of Iranian support for terrorism, and his attacks against the...

When my children are grown, I can tell them where I was when bloodthirsty Iranian thug-in-chief Mahmoud Ahmadinejad dared to disgrace Columbia University with his presence. I was standing with Jewish leaders, Iranian-American dissidents, World War II veterans and other concerned citizens, young and old, taking a stand against evil outside the campus gates in New York City's Morningside Heights. Banafsheh Zand-Bonazzi, an Iranian-born activist whose dissident journalist father is jailed in Iran, was appalled at the ignorance and moral equivalence of leftists who paraded in front of the TV cameras with their Bush-is-a-terrorist paraphernalia. A few goons held a...

Actor Kevin Spacey met privately Monday with Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez, one of Washington's most outspoken critics in Latin America. Neither Spacey -- who has won Academy Awards for roles in "The Usual Suspects" and "American Beauty" -- nor Chavez spoke to the press after the nearly three-hour encounter in the presidential palace in Caracas. They shook hands warmly on the red carpet as Spacey left after a dinner with Chavez. Hours earlier, the actor visited a $13 million film studio founded last year by the government to support Venezuelan filmmaking. Details were not released about the rest of Spacey's...

Columbia University protesters prepare for Iran's president BY MATT SOLARS, KATHLEEN LUCADAMO and NICOLE BODE DAILY NEWS WRITERSSaturday, September 22nd 2007, 4:00 AM   Columbia University students plan mass protests to greet Holocaust-denying Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad when he arrives on campus Monday to give a lecture.Students planning the demonstration on the steps of Low Memorial Library papered the area with posters yesterday depicting public executions of gays in Iran."Any student who cares about freedom of sexuality and freedom of religion should stand up and protest against this murderous dictator," said Sharona Getz, 22, who was taping up signs in...

It was embarrassing putting my flak jacket on backwards and sideways, but in the darkness of the Baghdad airport car park I couldn’t see anything. “Peterik, put the flak jacket on,” the South African security contractor was saying politely, impatiently. “You know the procedure if we are attacked.” I didn’t. He explained. One of the chase vehicles would pull up beside us and someone would drag me out of the armoured car, away from the firing. If both drivers were unconscious—nice euphemism—he said I should try to run to the nearest army checkpoint. If the checkpoint was American, things might...

The New York Times has now corrected a "smear" about Pete Seeger being 50 years too late in denouncing Stalin. Thanks to the intrepid research of Times reporter Daniel J. Wakin, the record has now been set straight. Pete Seeger was only about 40 years too late in criticizing Stalin. What inspired Wakin to make this "major" correction was a report by historian Ron Radosh in the August 31 New York Sun that Pete Seeger sent him a letter recently expressing his regret that he didn't see what anybody with a pair of even slightly discerning eyes could have spotted:...

Board of Supervisors 021415[Commend President Hugo Chavez]Supervisor Daly Resolution commending the administration of President Hugo Chavez for its commitment to democracy. Supervisor Leno, seconded by Supervisor McGoldrick, moved that this Resolution be ADOPTED. The motion carried by the following vote: Ayes: 11 - Ammiano, Daly, Gonzalez, Hall, Leno, Maxwell, McGoldrick, Newsom, Peskin, Sandoval, Yee http://www.sfgov.org/site/bdsupvrs_page.asp?id=13564

Just five short weeks ago, terrorist sympathizer Cindy Sheehan staged a public hissy fit and announced she was quitting the Democratic party and the antiwar movement over the failure of the Democrats to end the war in Iraq and personal attacks she received from liberals for criticizing the Democrats' failure.Now, claiming to be motivated by the commutation of Scooter Libby's prison sentence by her arch-nemesis, President Bush, Sheehan has announced a world tour commencing in the president's hometown of Crawford, Texas, on July 10.Sheehan says she will travel on foot to New Orleans, Ft. Benning, Washington, D.C., New York City...

<p>On July 2, 2007, the Iranian news agency Mehr, reported that Michael Moore will be invited to Iran by the Documentary and Experimental Film Center for a screening of his new film "Sicko" at an Iranian festival for documentary films called Reality Cinema. The festival is set to take place in Tehran from October 15-19.</p>

His thirst for the limelight has driven him to launch a multilingual blog and issue a string of headline-grabbing statements. But Iran's president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, was surprisingly camera-shy when his extrovert persona drew the attention of Hollywood, turning down a request by Oliver Stone, the director of JFK, Nixon and Platoon, to make a documentary film about him. He dismissed the American film-maker as "part of the Great Satan", the Iranian regime's standard term of abuse for the US. Mr Ahmadinejad's aides said Stone had requested special access to the president after contacting his office through intermediaries in the Iranian...

TEHRAN, July 02 (ISNA)-Writer, producer and director, Michael Moore is to come to Iran for the screening of his new production SICKO in the first international documentary film festival held here. This festival will be held from the 15th to the 19th of October in Tehran. According to reports in SICKO, Michael Moore interviews Americans who have been denied treatment by the U.S. health care insurance companies, whose policies are designed to maximize profits at the expense of providing essential care. The consequences of these individuals' plights range from bankruptcy to the unnecessary deaths of loved ones. Moore then looks...

irst it was Conan the Barbarian. Then it was Fidel Castro. And now, according to one foreign report, filmmaker Oliver Stone's next movie subject might well be Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. The Oscar winning director is seeking permission to start work on a proposed documentary about Ahmadinejad, according to a report from Iran. The Iranian Student News Agency said today Stone's project would be a profile of the president who has called for Israel to be destroyed. Permission is being sought to move forward with the project. "The request was made some three months ago. Stone is a professional filmmaker...

MAY 10--Director Michael Moore is being investigated by the Treasury Department for traveling to Cuba in violation of a U.S. trade embargo. In a May 2 letter, the Office of Foreign Assets Control informed Moore that he was the subject of a civil investigation stemming from the filmmaker's March trip to Cuba. Moore reportedly traveled there with 9/11 rescue workers who were seeking medical care. The trip was filmed as part of Moore's documentary "Sicko," which examines the U.S. health care industry (and premieres at the Cannes film festival on May 19). In the letter to Moore, a copy of...

Joe Kennedy Fires Back Letter to Florida Rep. Connie Mack Over Chavez Oil TV Ad Monday , February 12, 2007 FC1 ADVERTISEMENTClick here to find out more! WASHINGTON — Former Rep. Joe Kennedy fired off a letter Monday in response to a Florida congressman's calls for him to stop airing television commercials that heap praise on Venezuela for its providing discounted heating oil to low-income U.S. households. "If your moral indignation requires that we not accept the discount oil to distribute to our most vulnerable families, then that same high moral standard should require that you not drive your car...

Loyal followers of Saddam Hussein gathered in Yemen yesterday to mark the 40th day since the former Iraqi dictator was hanged. A crowd of several hundred heard an address by Saddam's eldest daughter, Raghad, who proclaimed her family's "pride" in him. "No one can ignore that he was a hero and one of the Arab nation's symbols," she said. "He met God with a clean heart and a clear conscience." She also praised the Iraqi insurgency as a heroic cause: "As long as the resistance and the Mujahideen are fulfilling their duties in Iraq, the Iraqi people, without any doubt,...

***Actual comments from www.democraticunderground.com:*** "Evidence suggests Iran gassed the Kurds as an act of war, and in any event, the US Government has killed more Iraqis than Saddam's regime ever did." "The US is complicit in the making of Saddam, and...Bush and his corporate fascists have butchered hundreds of thousands of people so that they could secure the fortunes of thier elitist families and friends. There is little difference between the two - oh, except the latter controls the propaganda machine." "If this is what Saddam deserves then a whole bunch of Americans deserve the same thing, for exactly the...

The UN on Sunday criticized the decision to sentence Saddam Hussein to death, calling upon local authorities to refuse the to hang the ex-leader. UN Human Rights Commission head Louise Arbour said that the "appeal process is reliable and a vital part of the fair judicial procedure." Army Radio reported. She said that "the results of the appeal will what they will be," and Arbour expressed hope that the Iraqi government would suspend its death sentence.

<p>West Virginia senator Jay Rockefeller said on the CBS evening news on Saturday that America was safer with Saddam in power.</p>

In her new book due out Sept. 19, "Peace Mom," Cindy Sheehan writes of her fantasies of killing President Bush.Sheehan, whose son Army Spc. Casey Sheehan was killed in Iraq in April, 2004, couches her desire for the murder of the President by saying she wishes she could go back in time and kill George Bush as an infant in order to prevent the Iraq war.Sheehan has been trying for over a year to meet with President Bush, but to no avail. She met with the President once in 2004 shortly after her son gave his life in Iraq. Since...

We live, as the pundits say, in the United States of Amnesia. Even so, did the makers of "The U.S. vs. John Lennon," an inquiry into our government's bizarre attempt to neutralize the perceived political juice of that famed English singer-songwriter, really need to spend half the movie explaining the Vietnam War and the anti-war movement to viewers? If things are really that bad, then perhaps the filmmakers should explain who John Lennon is. After all, the Beatles date back over 40 years. For those who do remember or are aware of the zeitgeist of the counterculture, this lengthy regurgitation...

As Rush Limbaugh often says, good economic news when Republicans are in office depresses the liberals. As proof of this, I present this DUmmie THREAD titled, "Is anyone worried about how falling oil prices will impact the election?" Yes, the DUmmies are WORRIED about good economic times. Not only that, you will see them also worrying about the low unemployment rate and the strong economy in general. Such good news for America is BAD NEWS for the DUmmies. So let us now watch the DUmmies admit they hate seeing gas prices decline in Bolshevik Red while the commentary of...

Historians Have Absolved Fidel Castro Humberto Fontova Tuesday, Aug. 15, 2006 "You may pronounce me guilty," declared Adolf Hitler during the trial in 1924 for his failed Rathaus putsch, "but the eternal court of history will absolve me." "Condemn me, it doesn't matter," declared Fidel Castro during the trial in 1953 for his failed Moncada putsch. "History will absolve me." The young Fidel Castro was a keen student of Nazi pageantry, often seen around campus with his well-thumbed copy of "Mein Kampf" alongside his pistol. His title of Lider Maximo perfectly mimics the German term Fuhrer. Over the years a...

A year after her first war protest in President Bush's adopted hometown attracted thousands and reinvigorated the nation's peace movement, Cindy Sheehan resumed her vigil Sunday. Under the blazing Texas sun, Sheehan and more than 50 demonstrators again marched a mile and a half toward Bush's ranch, stopping at a roadblock. As Secret Service agents stood silently, Sheehan held up her California driver's license and said she wanted to meet with the president. "It doesn't say my new address, but I do live here now," said Sheehan, who lives in Berkeley, Calif., and recently bought land in Crawford for war...

WALNUT CREEK - Local peace groups are upset over California Homeland Security's intelligence-gathering before a March 18 anti-war rally in Walnut Creek. Ivette Maruri, who recently started up a Contra Costa chapter of Code Pink, a women's peace organization, said she could not believe the government would spend taxpayer dollars to monitor her group. "There's a lot of people who want to come to a protest, but they're scared that the government is watching you, so they don't come," Maruri said. "It's just really intimidating to people." The state's March 7 report included a list of 10 "upcoming California protests."...

The blurb below was taken from MSNBC.com. I wonder how long it would take us to raise the funds to fly her there. ‘Wrong and immoral’ July 5: Activist Cindy Sheehan, who is leading a hunger strike against the war in Iraq, tells Norah O’Donnell she would rather live under Hugo Chavez than George W. Bush. Watch the entire interview on “Hardball” at 5 p.m. ET.

France has distanced itself from two former ambassadors facing corruption charges TWO former French ambassadors have admitted earning hundreds of thousands of dollars from the sale of oil that Iraq had assigned to them under the United Nations Oil-for-Food programme. The disclosure tarnished France’s moral stand against the invasion of Iraq, and its Foreign Ministry scrambled to distance itself from the alleged illicit activities of Serge Boidevaix, a former director of the ministry, and of Jean-Bernard Mérimée, a former French Ambassador to the UN. Both are facing corruption charges. Jean-Baptiste Mattei, spokesman for the Foreign Ministry, said: “There is no...

© 2004 WorldNetDaily.com Michael Moore (courtesy United Artists) Don't blame Hollywood for Sen. John Kerry's defeat in the presidential election last month, says filmmaker Michael Moore, who insists activist entertainers made the race closer than it would have been otherwise. Reacting to charges that his polarizing activism galvanized Republicans, Moore -- director of the provacative, anti-Bush film "Fahrenheit 9/11" -- contended Kerry lost the race simply because he was "not the best candidate." "For the last month, we've had to listen to a lot of conservative pundits talk about how Democrats need to run away from Hollywood," Moore told reporters before addressing...

AP articles published on the internet at numerous news outlets, including CBS, tell the story of 8 US soldiers named as plaintiffs in a lawsuit over enlistment extensions they considered unfair. The AP article as published on the CBS website, Soldiers Decry 'Unfair' Extensions, states:The lawsuit contends the policy is a breach of the service contract because it extends the length of service without a soldier's consent. It also alleges the contracts were misleading because they make no reference to the policy, said Staughton Lynd, an attorney for the soldiers. No mention is made of Staughton Lynd's significant past and...

WASHINGTON - The American Civil Liberties Union is seeking information from the FBI on why bureau task forces set up to combat terrorism also looked into anti-war, animal rights and environmental groups. Dozens of organizations have been subjected to scrutiny, according to the ACLU, which was filing Freedom of Information Act requests with the FBI on Thursday to try to find out why. "We think it's clear that the public is interested in the possible return of FBI spying on political and religious groups," said Ann Beeson, the ACLU's associate legal counsel. The FBI denies singling out individuals or groups...

"Hopefully Bush will get put on trial for war crimes right now. There was a feeling that he was gonna get re-elected anyway, just because Kerry wasn't a very strong opponent. "There's a small percentage of those people in the south that still wave the Confederate flag. I think George Bush is more of a threat to the freedom of America than (ousted Iraqi dictator) SADDAM HUSSEIN ever was."