LTR follows the money

"Just when I thought that I was out they pull me back in."

- Michael Corleone, as portrayed by Al Pacino, in The Godfather: Part III

I was hoping what I wrote last week would be the end of it. Every once in a while I just gotta get one of those things out of my system. And I thought I had said all I needed to say about Media Matters for America, George Soros and paranoid right-wing talk show hosts. But sure enough, another reason comes along to write something about it. Here we go again.

Bill O'Reilly of FOX Noise Channel hates Media Matters. I mean, he really hates them. So much that in the past, he's compared them to the likes of Mao, Castro, the Ku Klux Klan, and the Nazis. He called them "cowards" and "people who are afraid to answer any questions," yet will not allow anyone from MMfA to come on his show to spar with him. And now, MMfA must have really pissed O'Liely off, since he has trotted out his own personal doomsday device. His own neutron bomb. Yes, in his strange personal game of "six degrees of separation," he has a chart that links MMfA to George Soros' deep pockets. With this, he grasps at all the straws he possibly can in proving that, while Soros hasn't directly given money to the group, organizations funded by Soros have themselves sent money to MMfA. Oh the horror!

Only thing is, you'll never hear about why Soros is such a bad man on the "All-Spin Zone." Oh sure, you'll hear accusations of insider trading. Or that he's some kind of radical to the left of Abbie Hoffman. Or that he was a teenage Nazi back in World War II. Or that he's some kind of Dr. Evil, set on world domination (no doubt complete with laserbeam-fitted sharks and his mysterious Alan Parsons Project). Suffice it to say, O'Reilly's gone batshit crazy.

Now, here's a guy, Soros, who's a self-made billionaire, and in turn spent a lot of money fighting communism in Eastern Europe. One would assume that would make him a virtual hero to the right-wing of America. He sounds like a Reagan Republican's dream guy. Only one problem, though - he turned on the Bush Administration. A big no-no. Even after being buddy-buddy with the Bushes in Carlyle Group. Even after Harkin Energy, which Soros was part owner of, bailed out Junior's failed oil company, Soros soured on Dubya's economic and foreign policies. The war in Iraq was the final straw. First, he ran full-page ads in major US newspapers challenging the honesty of the Bush administration's rationale for the war. He also wrote a book, The Bubble of American Supremacy, which criticized the president's foreign policy. Then he pledged to spend up to $30 million to help defeat Bush in the 2004 election, donating nearly $24 million to various political action committees and liberal think tanks. The biggest beneficiaries of Soros' generosity were Americans Coming Together ($10 million), MoveOn.org ($2.5 million) and the Center for American Progress ($3 million). It's a rather small list. And no, Media Matters was not on that list. And neither was Air America Radio. Soros basically shot his $30 million load and left. But that $30 million is why the right-wing hates him so much. Or, they're scared shitless of the guy. So much that they're making up myths about this alleged bogeyman.

Michael Savage called Soros "a totally dangerous individual" who "doesn't miss an opportunity to attack this country" and "should be stripped of his citizenship." Right-wing activist David Horowitz, backed by quite a few generous right wing benefactors himself, has made ridiculous claims about Soros' campaign donations. O'Reilly called him "the big left-wing loon who's financing all these smear sites," and added, "They ought to hang this Soros guy." When Soros recently donated $2,100 to Barack Obama's presidential campaign, O'Reilly put on his tinfoil hat, oblivious to the fact that Soros once donated the same sum of money to John McCain. He really lives in fear in his belief that Soros is waging a war against him via MMfA. In short, Bill O'Reilly is one big pussy.

But enough about Soros. As I claimed last week, Soros isn't the only one doing it. On the left, there's Progressive Insurance CEO Peter Lewis and a few others. But that's a drop in the bucket compared to the other side. See, on the right, there's a whole ton of people. Some of the names I mentioned in the past, such as cult leader Sun Myung Moon and Rupert Murdoch are pretty out in the open. They invest in blatant partisan media geared toward right-wing propaganda. Richard DeVos, founder of the Amway pyramid scheme, has long been one of the biggest contributors to the Republican Party, and his kids have followed suit.

Behind the scenes, though, are a wide variety of billionaires, families, corporations and foundations throwing obscene amounts of money at political action committees, think tanks, media watchdog organizations, lobbying groups, and various propaganda outlets. Many of them stay out of the limelight. In this group, you'll find families like the Coors in Colorado, the Bradleys of Milwaukee, the Olin Foundation and others. They're still giving. But the most effective sugardaddy of them all is in Pittsburgh. The man is Richard Mellon Scaife.

Recall last week when I claimed that Moon was the top fatcat for the New Right. In terms of total spent, he likely is. But Scaife is the one who got the biggest bang for his buck. It's very likely that people like O'Reilly will never talk about right-wing moneymen like Scaife who heavily fund ventures designed to attack the left. Of course he wouldn't. Otherwise, he'll sound like a complete hypocrite. Most wingnuts will never acknowledge the efforts of the Coors, the Bradleys and the Scaifes. Even the Radio Tranquilizer has been whining that they don't have their own Soros or Lewis. Evidently, he's either not doing his homework or there are some things he just refuses to tell his readers. They're just pissy because we're now playing the game on their turf. The usual B.S. you hear is that left-leaning donors are squashing the right-wing with their spending. But that's utterly ridiculous. See, I have decided to track where all that right-wing foundation money goes, and after taking a trip down the rabbit hole, was pretty damned shocked to see where it all wound up. In fact, I struggled like crazy in making a similar chart to the simplistic one that O'Reilly's people coughed up, just because it went in so many directions. Here's a partial chart of what I came up with:


It's time to follow the money.

Now, who is Richard Mellon Scaife? He's an insanely rich man living in Pittsburgh, with interests in banking, oil, uranium and newspapers. Unlike Soros, who earned his own way from a poor immigrant, Scaife made his money the old fashioned way - he inherited it. And while Soros kept reinvesting his money to make more money, in that grand ol' American tradition, Scaife used his money to gain influence, spending roughly a third of his fortune on various right wing causes. Scaife is a man that seems to lurk in the shadows. He's a bit reclusive. He doesn't go on FOX Noise and play pundit. He doesn't write op-eds in the paper. In the grand tradition of Hearst, Hughes and others, he stays out of the limelight.

Even for a newspaper publisher, he's not very media-friendly. When former Wall Street Journal reporter Karen Rothmeyer, denied an interview on several occasions, ran into him on the street and asked him about his donations, an enraged Scaife yelled "You f*cking Communist c*nt, get out of here." In the remaining five minutes of the interview, Scaife told her she was ugly and that her teeth were "terrible." He closed by saying, "Don't look behind you." Wow, now THAT'S unhinged!

"If a liberal politician doesn't toe the Soros line, he or she will be denied funding and brutally attacked. Just ask Senator Joseph Lieberman about what MoveOn and Media Matters did to him," claimed O'Reilly. Yeah, just like Scaife did when Brock was canned for not being mean enough to Hillary Clinton and severed ties to American Spectator when they gave a bad review to a book by one of his henchmen. Pot, say hello to kettle.

Scaife is the Kevin Bacon of the New Right, in that just about anything and everything neocon seems to have connection to him, within even fewer degrees. So, how much has he forked over to prop up the right-wing? By 1999, according to the Washington Post, Scaife's foundations have forked over $340 million dollars to conservative causes and groups. Again, this is just Scaife we're talking about here. Granted, Scaife isn't forking it over like he used to, but thanks to his past efforts, the groups that he's given to are the ones now paying it forward.

To start with, Scaife made a shady donation of $990,000 to the 1972 re-election campaign of Richard Nixon. Due to loopholes, he wasn't charged with a crime, but roughly $45,000 of that went to a fund linked to the Watergate scandal. Quite a beginning there, Dick!

What really got Scaife hot though was a semi-obscure Arkansas governor named Bill Clinton. Fearing that this guy actually stood a decent chance of beating Bush I in the 1992 election, Scaife brought out all the guns. He was a major backer of The American Spectator, a right-wing magazine that was planning an all-out smear campaign now commonly referred to as "The Arkansas Project." The purpose was to find out anything about Clinton, and if that wasn't good enough, just make stuff up. This is where stuff like Paula Jones came from. And later Whitewater, the suicide of Vince Foster (which they tried to paint as a murder), and whatever else they could pull out of their asses. The purpose was to force Clinton from office and endlessly dog and harass him and his family. This was with the help of Scaife's own personal attack dog reporter, Christopher Ruddy, who later founded NewsMax.com. In other words, lots of time and effort was spent in trying to topple a presidency, an act that could theoretically be considered treason. Scaife sunk a ton of his own money into these ventures, reportedly almost $2 million dollars (not counting money he gave to then-House Speaker and Clinton antagonist Newt Gingrich's various groups), giving Independent Counsel Kenneth Starr a lot to work with. Ironically (or not), Scaife endowed a new school of public policy at Pepperdine University, and Starr was named its first dean. A controversy brewed, and Starr turned it down, before accepting it again in 2004.

Ironically, Scaife indirectly helped fund MMfA, since founder David Brock was a top writer for American Spectator at the time of the Arkansas Project, and was paid handsomely to lash out at the Clintons with various ridiculous claims. Following an eventual change of heart and his brave decision to publicly declare his sexual orientation, Brock drifted toward the other side and founded MMfA, obviously using some of the money paid to him from the Spectator's coffers. We can thank Scaife in part for that.

Like many other conservative sugardaddies, Scaife sunk money into other ventures. The American Enterprise Institute was another big benefactor, and they in turn helped prop up the epicenter of neo-conservatism, the Project for a New American Century (PNAC), as well as the Federalist Society, which could be seen as the starting point for conservative trash-talker Ann Coulter. Coulter's scating columns have since been published in various Scaife media ventures.

And while O'Reilly and his ilk constantly charge that Soros funds MMfA, several conservative-leaning media watchdogs have stuck their hands in Scaife's cookie jar. Directly. The Center for Media and Public Affairs is one, and the ironically-titled Accuracy in Media is another beneficiary. You remember AIM, right? They were out front in the whole Vince Foster conspiracy. But the most well-known of these watchdogs is the Media Research Center (MRC), headed by Brent Bozell, complete with a $6 million annual budget and 60 staff members. And they've even branched out, starting their very own news organization, the Cybercast (formerly Conservative) News Service (CNS). They were the ones that claimed they had proof of Saddam Hussein's WMD's. In addition, the MRC started up a MMfA-type blog, Newsbusters.org. MRC's affiliate, the Parents Television Council (PTC), is similar in nature. The MRC has also helped encourage the efforts of the Swift Boat Veterans for Truth, whose purpose was to dog John Kerry with lies and vague accusations during the 2004 presidential campaign. And unlike MMfA, the MRC/PTC has actually taken their fight against liberalism to the government, in the form of various complaints to the FCC.

Scaife has also thrown money at right-wing news organizations. Besides his ownership of the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review, he presently has an ownership stake in NewsMax.com. He donated to Heritage Society and Moral Majority founder Paul Weyrich's Free Congress Foundation, which in turn started an ill-fated conservative TV network, National Empowerment Television (later America's Voice), a venture that turned out to be a financial sinkhole that nobody watched. He also sent $330,000 directly to the Western Journalism Center, which helped start Joseph Farah's WorldNetDaily.com.

Scaife sent money to the Center for the Study of Popular Culture, a group founded by former Marxist-turned-right wing activist David Horowitz. Horowitz in turn started FrontPageMag.com, Discover the Networks, which tracks funding to and from left-leaning causes, and most curiously, the Matt Drudge Defense Fund, which supported him in a lawsuit a few years back. Needless to say, Drudge knows who his sugardaddy is.

Lately, Scaife has been a buyer of buyer of books, in mass quantities. Ever wonder about those high rankings on the New York Times bestseller lists for conservative books? Or those conservative book clubs offering titles for ridiculously low prices? Thank Scaife for that, since he buys in bulk. Particularly titles from Regnery Press, which publishes the work of Michelle Malkin, David Limbaugh and most famously, "Unfit for Command," which helped jumpstart that "Swift Boat Veterans for Truth" thing a few years back. Ah, yes - another connection to the Swift Nuts!

And Scaife also contributed money and resources to the Council for National Policy, a secretive networking group that counts among its members a who's-who of the New Right, including Bozell, Moon, DeVos, Pat Robertson, Donald Wildmon, Jerry Falwell, Grover Norquist, disgraced congressman Tom DeLay, Senator Trent Lott, Tommy Thompson and others. Whew!

Needless to say, Scaife gets around. And it's not just him either. The names of Coors and Bradley also pop up here and there. But for head marionette status, nobody can top Scaife. Sure, he didn't make much financial return on these investments, but for overall influence and power, he most certainly got his money's worth. So when people like O'Reilly piss and moan about the right wing being horribly underfunded, we can all laugh at him. Or when Brian Maloney whines on his fact-lacking blog about the lack of a Soros or Lewis on his side (that is, when he's not writing ridiculous entries about Sheryl Crow and toilet paper - which is a fitting topic for him, since he is kind of an asswipe anyway), then we can point him in the right direction and he can stop begging his readers to send him money. So consider this a helpful tool for the right. That's right, I'm providing a service here. Because, if you get all your news from Rush Limbaugh, the FOX Noise Channel and AM radio, you'll likely never know about the Coors, or the Bradleys, or the John M. Olin Foundation, or Jeremiah Milbank, or ExxonMobil, or Lockheed Martin, or any of the other 'philanthropists', foundations, corporations or other sugardaddies and fatcats.

And certainly not Richard Mellon Scaife.

In an ironic footnote, the Scaife Family Foundation is now under the control of his daughter Jennie, and the focus has changed quite a bit. Much of the money currently goes to nonpolitical projects such as medical programs, drug treatment and animal welfare. They also send money to Planned Parenthood, though against her father's wishes. Hey, at least there's still all those other donors, foundations and think tanks, provided they haven't jumped ship already. But thanks to the infrastructure provided by the likes of Scaife, they can all sail on autopilot for a long time to come.

A Liberal's Pledge to Disheartened Conservatives ...by Michael Moore

I caught this article by Michael Moore this morning, and I felt it was worthy enough to pass along to readers of this blog. Enjoy!

To My Conservative Brothers and Sisters,

I know you are dismayed and disheartened at the results of last week's election. You're worried that the country is heading toward a very bad place you don't want it to go. Your 12-year Republican Revolution has ended with so much yet to do, so many promises left unfulfilled. You are in a funk, and I understand.

Well, cheer up, my friends! Do not despair. I have good news for you. I, and the millions of others who are now in charge with our Democratic Congress, have a pledge we would like to make to you, a list of promises that we offer you because we value you as our fellow Americans. You deserve to know what we plan to do with our newfound power -- and, to be specific, what we will do to you and for you.

Thus, here is our Liberal's Pledge to Disheartened Conservatives:

Dear Conservatives and Republicans,

I, and my fellow signatories, hereby make these promises to you:

1. We will always respect you for your conservative beliefs. We will never, ever, call you "unpatriotic" simply because you disagree with us. In fact, we encourage you to dissent and disagree with us.

2. We will let you marry whomever you want, even when some of us consider your behavior to be "different" or "immoral." Who you marry is none of our business. Love and be in love -- it's a wonderful gift.

3. We will not spend your grandchildren's money on our personal whims or to enrich our friends. It's your checkbook, too, and we will balance it for you.

4. When we soon bring our sons and daughters home from Iraq, we will bring your sons and daughters home, too. They deserve to live. We promise never to send your kids off to war based on either a mistake or a lie.

5. When we make America the last Western democracy to have universal health coverage, and all Americans are able to get help when they fall ill, we promise that you, too, will be able to see a doctor, regardless of your ability to pay. And when stem cell research delivers treatments and cures for diseases that affect you and your loved ones, we'll make sure those advances are available to you and your family, too.

6. Even though you have opposed environmental regulation, when we clean up our air and water, we, the Democratic majority, will let you, too, breathe the cleaner air and drink the purer water.

7. Should a mass murderer ever kill 3,000 people on our soil, we will devote every single resource to tracking him down and bringing him to justice. Immediately. We will protect you.

8. We will never stick our nose in your bedroom or your womb. What you do there as consenting adults is your business. We will continue to count your age from the moment you were born, not the moment you were conceived.

9. We will not take away your hunting guns. If you need an automatic weapon or a handgun to kill a bird or a deer, then you really aren't much of a hunter and you should, perhaps, pick up another sport. We will make our streets and schools as free as we can from these weapons and we will protect your children just as we would protect ours.

10. When we raise the minimum wage, we will pay you -- and your employees -- that new wage, too. When women are finally paid what men make, we will pay conservative women that wage, too.

11. We will respect your religious beliefs, even when you don't put those beliefs into practice. In fact, we will actively seek to promote your most radical religious beliefs ("Blessed are the poor," "Blessed are the peacemakers," "Love your enemies," "It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God," and "Whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers of mine, you did for me."). We will let people in other countries know that God doesn't just bless America, he blesses everyone. We will discourage religious intolerance and fanaticism -- starting with the fanaticism here at home, thus setting a good example for the rest of the world.

12. We will not tolerate politicians who are corrupt and who are bought and paid for by the rich. We will go after any elected leader who puts him or herself ahead of the people. And we promise you we will go after the corrupt politicians on our side FIRST. If we fail to do this, we need you to call us on it. Simply because we are in power does not give us the right to turn our heads the other way when our party goes astray. Please perform this important duty as the loyal opposition.

I promise all of the above to you because this is your country, too. You are every bit as American as we are. We are all in this together. We sink or swim as one. Thank you for your years of service to this country and for giving us the opportunity to see if we can make things a bit better for our 300 million fellow Americans -- and for the rest of the world.

Signed,

Michael Moore
mmflint@aol.com
(Click here to sign the pledge)
www.michaelmoore.com

P.S. Please feel free to pass this on.

Hee-Haw!

Laura Ingraham thinks voter suppression is a joke

Amidst all the craziness of Election Day, conservative radio host Laura Ingraham today asked her listeners to call the Dem Voter protection hotline — and they are now being flooded with calls from crank callers.

Thanks to a poster at Daily Kos, here is an mp4 recording of the segment. This has also inspired other efforts from her moronic listeners (sound file).

Think Laura is the scum of the earth? Well, give her a call, for cryin' out loud, and tell her what you think about this:

(800)876-4123

You can e-mail her via a form at this link. Apparently, voter intimidation and fraud are a joke to Laura Ingraham. Let's let her know that it is no joke.

In addition, a "caller indicated she is running a tape of Bill Clinton over and over saying "call 1-888 Dem Vote to report problems" — and then making fun of him, thus producing a spike in crank calls to the number"

Protecting voter integrity is no joke. And I highly doubt most people are laughing. Laura Ingraham should be ashamed of her self.

Incidentally, if you are reading this and have not voted yet, stop reading this damned blog and get out there and VOTE, DAMMIT! And when you go, bring these numbers with you:

1-888-DEM-VOTE (Democratic voter assistance from the DNC)
1-866-OUR-VOTE (Election Protection coalition)
1-866-MY-VOTE-1 (Fels Institute of Government at University of Pennsylvania)

These numbers may come in handy if you notice any voting irregularities (faulty machines, denial of right to vote, shady happenings, etc.). And you can call that nasty facist bitch Laura Ingraham at (800)876-4123 and tell her what you think of her attempt to suppress democracy.

Liberal talkers gearing up for Election coverage

It all comes down to today.

Finally, after an election season of negative advertising, silly games, sometimes violent confrontations, moronic pundits and nonstop coverage by the entire media, Election Day 2006 is finally upon us. And there will be no shortage of play-by-play on any media outlet (though I'm still not sure what Cartoon Network has planned). Sure, NBC, ABC, CBS, FOX, PBS, CNN, C-SPAN, MSNBC, Comedy Central and many others will be covering the event, but there's also a lot going on via that old fashioned device known as 'the radio'.

Perhaps the most ambitious coverage is an independent effort by syndicated radio host Peter B. Collins and investigative journalist and election integrity advocate Brad Friedman, co-founder of VelvetRevolution.us. The two are teaming up for a coast-to-coast Election Night Marathon Broadcast that is being offered live over multiple broadcast stations and streaming internet outlets. Online news site Raw Story is also a co-sponsor of the event

This coverage will be unique in that it will focus both on continuing, growing election problems around the country, as well as the "horse race." A major focus will be on issues of election integrity and electronic voting systems

Everything will kick off at 6PM ET (3PM PT), with the start of Collins' show and continue until 4AM ET (1AM PT) or as long as events on the ground warrant. The broadcast will be offered for free to any interested radio networks, commercial and non-commercial broadcast stations, and internet networks. Thom Hartmann, Greg Palast, Mark Crispin Miller, Bev Harris, Bob Fitrakis and others will participate in the broadcast.

You can hear the Election Night Integrity Radio Marathon on stations such as KRXA (540 AM) in Monterey, KGOE (1480AM) in Eureka, KSAC (1240AM) in Sacramento, KUDO (1080AM) in Anchorage, and community station WBCR (97.7FM) in Great Barrington, Massachusetts.

WhiteRoseSociety.org, KPFTX.org and HeadOnRadioNetwork.com will also stream the show.

Palast and Friedman will also check in with Nova M's Mike Malloy, who will be doing his weeknight show starting at 9PM.

Meanwhile, Air America Radio will feature a special called "Send Out The Clowns", hosted by Rachel Maddow and David Bender, and featuring reports from Al Franken, Mike Papantonio and Sam Seder, with commentary from MSNBC's Tucker Carlson, humorist Andy Borowitz and others. Some local affiliates may be doing thier own programming, particularly Clear Channel's KQKE in San Francisco, which will be pooling resources with the company's other news/talk stations in Northern California (KNEW in San Francisco and KFBK in Sacramento) for their own bipartisan coverage.

Sirius subscribers have several choices, including "Ejection 2006" on Sirius Left (Ch. 143), which will be hosted by morning host Alex Bennett. This will start at 9PM ET. Other Sirius Left hosts such as Lynn Samuels and Bill Press will participate, as will various listeners and bloggers.

Sirius OutQ (Ch. 106), which bills itself as "America’s Gay Radio Station" presents 'Correction 2006', featuring hosts John McMullen and OutQ News Director Tim Curran, starting at 10PM ET. Emphasis will be primarily on important elections and ballot initiatives affecting the LGBT community, races with key LGBT candidates, and insight into the US House and Senate races. Michelangelo Signorile, actor and women’s rights activist Nancy Lee Grahn, and national LGBT spokespeople including Matt Foreman of the National Gay and Lesbian Taskforce, Kate Kendell from the National Center for Lesbian Rights, and Patrick Sammon from the National Log Cabin Republicans will also contribute, along with stringers nationwide.

Public radio is always one of the top radio sources covering elections, with a detailed, nonpartisan hard-news take on the races. This year will be no exception. NPR’s election night special will begin at 8PM ET and continue through the night. The hosts of "Election 2006" are Robert Siegel and Linda Wertheimer until 1AM ET. NPR White House Correspondent Don Gonyea and Capitol Hill Reporter Andrea Seabrook take over at 1AM ET. NPR reporters and producers will be deployed around the country to cover key races. Local NPR affiliates, regional public radio networks and other non-commercial radio stations will likely be doing localized programming.

The Young Turks hire ambush reporter Mike Stark

Blogger, Marine Corps veteran, University of Virginia law student, renegade reporter and media prankster Mike Stark has been making quite a name for himself this year.

For awhile, via his weblog Calling All Wingnuts and his posts on the Daily Kos, he has entertained many with recordings of his stealth ambush calls to a variety of conservative radio hosts.



He slipped in a Viagra reference on Rush Limbaugh's show, not too long after the noted prescription drug enthusiast got busted for smuggling the sexual enhancement pills into the Dominican Republic.

He angered Bill O'Reilly so much just by mentioning Keith Olbermann's name that the Big Giant Head threatened to sic FOX Security on him, obviously not realizing at that moment that his radio show is syndicated by Westwood One.

Stark has also been a thorn in the side of various politicians and TV personalities. He suggested to FOX News talking head Brian Kilmeade that he forgo the expensive suits and haircuts and go fight in Iraq.

And just this past summer, he punked Hannity on his FOX show showing us all what we already knew.

In short, he's likely the guy that many at FOX News most love to hate. For that matter, the rest of the conservative media doesn't take kindly to him either.

Things got a bit more serious earlier this week when Stark was roughed-up by Virginia Senator George (Macaca) Allen's hired thugs. Stark initially approached Allen following a campaign appearance at a hotel in downtown Charlottesville and was subdued. Then, when he asked Allen a question about abuse allegations involving his first marriage, Stark was shoved to the ground, roughed-up, and forceably removed from the hotel grounds.



Allen, whose struggling re-election effort has resorted to accusing his rival, James Webb, a Vietnam War veteran and former Navy Secretary under Ronald Reagan, of including pornographic writing in a novel based on his time in Vietnam, merely said about the Stark incident, "Things like that happen".

Stark later recounted the incident on "Countdown with Keith Olbermann" (YouTube link). He has also filed assault charges against several Allen supporters who wrestled him to the ground.

All in all, Stark has become an expert at ambushing conservatives and holding their feet to the fire. And now, he's officially a part of the 'old media'.

On Wednesday, Cenk Uygur of Air America Radio's "The Young Turks" announced that they have hired Stark as an on-air show reporter.

"Mike is smart, tough, well educated, dedicated and obviously courageous. This country needs more reporters like Mike Stark. I am proud to be part of an organization that is going to give people like Mike an opportunity to ask more tough questions of our elected officials. The people have a right to know."

Young Turks spokeswoman Arianne Schrodel said the 38-year-old Stark would be the show's first "street reporter."

TYT bills itself as "the first nationwide liberal talk show and first live, daily Internet TV show." It airs live Monday through Friday from 6 a.m. to 9 a.m. on Air America radio and via Webcast. The show, based in Los Angeles, began broadcasting in 2002 and moved to Air America in September.

Stark would not say how much he was being paid as a reporter for the show. He also said he was uncertain if he would cover the Virginia Senate campaign because of study demands at U.Va.

"This job is totally secondary to law school," said Stark. "But the main reason they're hiring me is because of the void in the media of asking difficult questions of powerful people."

Yet another example of why Bush is a 'uniter' (snicker), not a 'divider' (note heavy sarcasm)

(note: free subscription required for All Access link)

JONES/DEMOCRACY RADIO ED SCHULTZ SHOW producer JAMES HOLM is one of 42 people whose attempt to get into the audience for a speech in FARGO by President BUSH TODAY (2/3) was denied. HOLM is a member of the FARGO-MOORHEAD DEMOCRACY FOR AMERICA MEETUP GROUP; at least 33 of the people on the list of those denied admittance are identified as present or former members of the group. The WHITE HOUSE and liberal activist groups have been at odds nationwide over the practice of banning protestors or members of groups opposed to BUSH policies from speeches and "town hall meetings."

Glad to see Bush wants to listen to ALL people. Asshole.

"Fahrenheit 9/11½."

Michael Moore met with Harvey Weinstein and Moore says they plan to start working -- now -- on "Fahrenheit 9/11½."

"We want to get cameras rolling now and have it ready in two-three years," Moore says. "We want to document and commercialize it. Fifty-one percent of the American people lacked information (in this election) and we want to educate and enlighten them. They weren't told the truth. We're communicators and it's up to us to start doing it now. The official mourning period is over today and there is a silver lining -- George W. Bush is prohibited by law from running again."

And as for those who claim that Hollywood was an albatross on the Democrats' neck, Moore says, "America loves Hollywood. When given a chance to vote for someone from Hollywood, they jump in." He cited the history of successful Republican actor-politicians from George Murphy to Ronnie Reagan to Arnold. "Who is the Democrats' Arnold? We have a number of them. What American wouldn't vote for Tom Hanks? Hollywood is full of people like that." When I asked what actor would trade a $20 million salary and a percentage of the gross, he countered with "Let's pay the actor-politicians a presidential salary of $20 million -- plus a percentage of the GNP."

He says "Hollywood gets a chance for one more vote this year": Moore and Harvey are going ahead on the Oscar campaign for "Fahrenheit 9/11" in best picture and other applicable categories. Harvey told him, "Let's do it. And I said 'whatever Harvey wants, I'm ready.'" He isn't bothered by the absence of suitable category for a Golden Globe nomination --" We're not a musical, comedy or dramatic feature." He laughingly admits, "I don't know if people want to see me on the stage of the Kodak again. However, since my wife (Kathleen) was the producer, if I win -- she speaks!". Thousands of the "Fahrenheit" DVDs have been donated to libraries and schools. He gave them away on his trek through 63 cities in the past month -- they included stops in Ohio and Florida.

The issues (for the next film) have not changed because of the election. "They are Iraq and terrorism." He says he continues to get mail from the armed forces telling of their disappointments." I asked about his hate mail? "There's very little. It's dropped down to a few drive-by gloaters." And yes, he'll continue preparing his other film, "Sicko," on the national health care industry.

17 Reasons Not to Slit Your Wrists...by Michael Moore

Friday, November 5th, 2004

Dear Friends,

Ok, it sucks. Really sucks. But before you go and cash it all in, let's, in the words of Monty Python, “always look on the bright side of life!” There IS some good news from Tuesday's election.

Here are 17 reasons not to slit your wrists:

1. It is against the law for George W. Bush to run for president again.

2. Bush's victory was the NARROWEST win for a sitting president since Woodrow Wilson in 1916.

3. The only age group in which the majority voted for Kerry was young adults (Kerry: 54%, Bush: 44%), proving once again that your parents are always wrong and you should never listen to them.

4. In spite of Bush's win, the majority of the Americans still think the country is headed in the wrong direction (56%), think the war wasn't worth fighting (51%), and don’t approve of the job George W. Bush is doing (52%). (Note to foreigners: Don't try to figure this one out. It's an American thing, like Pop Tarts.)

5. The Republicans will not have a filibuster-proof 60-seat majority in the Senate. If the Democrats do their job, Bush won't be able to pack the Supreme Court with right-wing ideologues. Did I say "if the Democrats do their job?" Um, maybe better to scratch this one.

6. Michigan voted for Kerry! So did the entire Northeast, the birthplace of our democracy. So did 6 of the 8 Great Lakes States. And the whole West Coast! Plus Hawaii. Ok, that's a start. We've got most of the fresh water, all of Broadway, and Mt. St. Helens. We can dehydrate them or bury them in lava. And no more show tunes!

7. Once again we are reminded that the buckeye is a nut, and not just any old nut -- a poisonous nut. A great nation was felled by a poisonous nut. May Ohio State pay dearly this Saturday when it faces Michigan.

8. 88% of Bush's support came from white voters. In 50 years, America will no longer have a white majority. Hey, 50 years isn't such a long time! If you're ten years old and reading this, your golden years will be truly golden and you will be well cared for in your old age.

9. Gays, thanks to the ballot measures passed on Tuesday, cannot get married in 11 new states. Thank God. Just think of all those wedding gifts we won't have to buy now.

10. Five more African Americans were elected as members of Congress, including the return of Cynthia McKinney of Georgia. It's always good to have more blacks in there fighting for us and doing the job our candidates can't.

11. The CEO of Coors was defeated for Senate in Colorado. Drink up!

12. Admit it: We like the Bush twins and we don't want them to go away.

13. At the state legislative level, Democrats picked up a net of at least 3 chambers in Tuesday's elections. Of the 98 partisan-controlled state legislative chambers (house/assembly and senate), Democrats went into the 2004 elections in control of 44 chambers, Republicans controlled 53 chambers, and 1 chamber was tied. After Tuesday, Democrats now control 47 chambers, Republicans control 49 chambers, 1 chamber is tied and 1 chamber (Montana House) is still undecided.

14. Bush is now a lame duck president. He will have no greater moment than the one he's having this week. It's all downhill for him from here on out -- and, more significantly, he's just not going to want to do all the hard work that will be expected of him. It'll be like everyone's last month in 12th grade -- you've already made it, so it's party time! Perhaps he'll treat the next four years like a permanent Friday, spending even more time at the ranch or in Kennebunkport. And why shouldn't he? He's already proved his point, avenged his father and kicked our ass.

15. Should Bush decide to show up to work and take this country down a very dark road, it is also just as likely that either of the following two scenarios will happen: a) Now that he doesn't ever need to pander to the Christian conservatives again to get elected, someone may whisper in his ear that he should spend these last four years building "a legacy" so that history will render a kinder verdict on him and thus he will not push for too aggressive a right-wing agenda; or b) He will become so cocky and arrogant -- and thus, reckless -- that he will commit a blunder of such major proportions that even his own party will have to remove him from office.

16. There are nearly 300 million Americans -- 200 million of them of voting age. We only lost by three and a half million! That's not a landslide -- it means we're almost there. Imagine losing by 20 million. If you had 58 yards to go before you reached the goal line and then you barreled down 55 of those yards, would you stop on the three yard line, pick up the ball and go home crying -- especially when you get to start the next down on the three yard line? Of course not! Buck up! Have hope! More sports analogies are coming!!!

17. Finally and most importantly, over 55 million Americans voted for the candidate dubbed "The #1 Liberal in the Senate." That's more than the total number of voters who voted for either Reagan, Bush I, Clinton or Gore. Again, more people voted for Kerry than Reagan. If the media are looking for a trend it should be this -- that so many Americans were, for the first time since Kennedy, willing to vote for an out-and-out liberal. The country has always been filled with evangelicals -- that is not news. What IS news is that so many people have shifted toward a Massachusetts liberal. In fact, that's BIG news. Which means, don't expect the mainstream media, the ones who brought you the Iraq War, to ever report the real truth about November 2, 2004. In fact, it's better that they don't. We'll need the element of surprise in 2008.
Feeling better? I hope so. As my friend Mort wrote me yesterday, "My Romanian grandfather used to say to me, 'Remember, Morton, this is such a wonderful country -- it doesn't even need a president!'"

But it needs us. Rest up, I'll write you again tomorrow.

Yours,

Michael Moore
MMFlint@aol.com
http://www.michaelmoore.com/

A picture is worth a thousand words

Sirius Left announces Election Night coverage

From All Access:

Sirius is gearing up for election night with lots of special programming on their in-house channels, as well as from networks they carry, such as NPR and Air America. On Sirius Left, look for special election night shows with Alex Bennett, Lynn Samuels and the Young Turks. OUTQ is featuring it's new "OUTQuotient" index (in partnership with The Advocate) measuring the impact of gay voters, candidates, and issues, with John McMullen and Michaelangelo Signorile anchoring the coverage with News Dir. Tim Curran and analyst Corey Johnson. Oh, and their conservative channels are also planning special programming.

As I hear about any other special programming, I'll pass it on.

Eminem's 'October Surprise'

Who'da thunk that one of the most damning statements of the Bush Administration would be delivered by a mega-successful white rapper out of Detroit? Well, in this ever-intriguing election campaign season, anything goes. Eminem has come out with a slashing diatribe of President Bush and his handling of the Iraq War and the economy. And it is powerful stuff, even if you don't like Eminem or rap in general.

Here's a little background on the video:

VH1

Michael Moore, the "Fahrenheit 9/11" filmmaker who tried his hand at directing music videos with Rage Against the Machine (Ed note: I thought it was System Of A Down), would certainly approve of Eminem's new clip, "Mosh," which has just hit the Internet.

A scathing indictment of President Bush and the war in Iraq (see "Em Changes Targets From Jacko To Bush On New Track 'Mosh' "), the animated video begins with the jarring image of a commercial airliner flying over a school and then exploding offscreen. The point of view then zooms into the school, where Eminem is reading a children's book to a class in a scene reminiscent of the minutes following the 9-11 attacks, when Bush was at a Florida elementary school reading to second graders. Eminem is holding his book upside down.

From there, "Mosh" moves to Eminem's apartment, where the walls are covered with articles critical of the Bush administration and its policies. Filled with anger, he puts on gloves and dons a hooded jacket. Clips of Em rapping the track are then interspersed with scenes of domestic problems facing the country, such as racial profiling (an animated Lloyd Banks is harassed by police) and poverty (an inner-city family receives an eviction notice as their TV set shows Bush promising tax cuts for the wealthy).

"Mosh" portrays Eminem as a powerful rebellious figure who just by using his voice and music has the ability to mobilize people who are fed up with the president. With his following uniformly dressed in dark hoodies, the group looks to be storming toward the White House but actually end up signing up to vote. At the same time in the song, Em talks about the people assembling to disarm what he calls the real weapon of mass destruction: George W. Bush.

A pro-vote message is tagged on at the end of the clip, directed by Ian Inaba of the Guerrilla News Network, which is hosting the video at GNN.tv. Eminem's Encore is due November 16.

Here's a little about how the video and song came together, and matched up. The director was influenced by Greg Palast and various works that GNN was doing:

GNN

As a music video director, ideas for videos usually come independent of the song and are then adapted to fit the timing and lyrics of the featured track. I initially developed a concept for this video in June 2004 and contacted Interscope shortly after to find out what artists in their roster would be releasing albums near the election. The goal was to make a video that inspired young people to vote because they too often disregard it as a powerless exercise. To show them that political decisions do impact their daily lives and that voting is the most powerful act we all have to voice our opinion and effect change. And to educate and reiterate the point that whether or not people want to accept it, there are forces in play that attempt to suppress the youth and minority vote.

When I got the callback that our favorite conspirator of controversy, Eminem would be releasing an album in November, I knew we had the potential to
say something that would be heard by the masses. And after hearing the song later that month it seemed Mr. Mathers had also been in the lab concocting his own plans for the election and it was precisely the anthem I had been looking for. So with less than six weeks to deliver we put together a team and forgot about what it meant to sleep. In order to produce animation for a song that runs 5:20 in just over 5 weeks we were going to need a lot of green tea and mate and a little help from Marshall himself. This video was made possible by a team of artists who came together inspired by a song and video that might be able to effect the next four years of all of our lives.

Two years ago, this video would not have been approved by a single record label. A year ago it would never had the possibility of being played on television. But with the changing tide of public sentiment marked by the success of our last video for Chronic Future, an anti-war message that made it into rotation on TRL we think it might just have a chance.

But will MTV play it? You can vote for it on TRL by writing it in. I hope everyone sees it, it is a powerful video and song, even if you don't like rap.

You can see the video here:

Rap Basement

Or here:

Launch.com

C-SPAN: Political Talk Show Week

From the site:

In the remaining days leading up to next week's election, C-SPAN is simulcasting various talk radio shows around the country. On Tuesday, we have Michael Smerconish of WPHT 1210-AM Philadelphia and Lynn Cullen of WPTT 1360-AM Pittsburgh.

It looks like they're still fleshing out the schedule, but so far tomorrow, it looks like Lincoln Ware of African-American talk station WDBZ in Cincinnati, OH and conservative Denny Schaffer of WSPD-AM, Toledo, OH. I have also heard rumors of a simulcast of Thom Hartmann's show, but I'll keep you posted.

You can also check C-SPAN's site for more info.

Station Break: Top 35 Trends that say Kerry will Take the White House in November

Thought this blog entry was well worth sharing. Very optimistic for Kerry fans!

'Top 35 Trends that say Kerry will Take the White House in November' from Political Strategy.

1) Bush must lead by 4%: Professor Alan of the Emerging Democratic Majority shows that Bush must go into November 2 with an average of at least a 4% lead in such polls if he is to have any sort of hope for four more years.

2) The 'Cell Phone Polling' Phenomenon: Traditional polling relies almost exclusively on landline telephone. Unfortunately, according to Charlie Cook of the Cook Political Report, as much as 18% of the electorate don't have land lines and instead rely exclusively on cell phones. The Hill gives us a little something about this demographic. Anyone care to venture a guess as to how this demographic overwhelmingly votes? Yup. According to Newsweek (10/16/04), Young voters (18-29) favor Kerry/Edwards by 9 points.

3) Zogby is the Most Accurate Pollster: Zogby, which touts the most accurate polls for the last two presidential elections, calls for a very strong Kerry victory. He has referred to the race as "Kerry's to lose."

In 2000, Zogby was one of several pollsters that was only two cumulative
percentage points off from the actual, but it was the only one in that group
to actually choose Gore as the winner (which we all know he was). In
1996, Zogby hit the nail right on the head. Sure, everyone predicted a
Clinton victory, but Zogby predicted the exact percentage totals for
Clinton, Dole...and even Perot at 8%.

4) Kerry Has Large Lead in Swing States: Kerry is doing extremely well where it matters, leading Bush by 10% in the swing states. According to the Washington post.

5) PA Goes to Kerry:Pennsylvania is NOT in play! (and neither is New Jersey. Don't let the GOP Poll 'Strategic Vision' fool you.) That leaves Ohio and Florida as the next target.

Click the headline for more. A must read!