George Clooney is holding forth at The Huffington Post. Here's a helpful translation from the original La-La-land dialect:

I Am a Liberal. There, I Said It!

I am a liberal. And I make no apologies for it. Hell, I'm proud of it.

Too many people run away from the label. They whisper it like you'd whisper "I'm a Nazi." Like it's dirty word. But turn away from saying "I'm a liberal" and it's like you're turning away from saying that blacks should be allowed to sit in the front of the bus, that women should be able to vote and get paid the same as a man, that McCarthy was wrong, that Vietnam was a mistake. And that Saddam Hussein had no ties to al-Qaeda and had nothing to do with 9/11.

This is an incredibly polarized time (wonder how that happened?). But I find that, more and more, people are trying to find things we can agree on. And, for me, one of the things we absolutely need to agree on is the idea that we're all allowed to question authority. We have to agree that it's not unpatriotic to hold our leaders accountable and to speak out.

That's one of the things that drew me to making a film about Murrow. When you hear Murrow say, "We mustn't confuse dissent with disloyalty" and "We can't defend freedom at home by deserting it at home," it's like he's commenting on today's headlines.

The fear of been [sic] criticized can be paralyzing. Just look at the way so many Democrats caved in the run up to the war. In 2003, a lot of us were saying, where is the link between Saddam and bin Laden? What does Iraq have to do with 9/11? We knew it was bullshit. Which is why it drives me crazy to hear all these Democrats saying, "We were misled." It makes me want to shout, "Fuck you, you weren't misled. You were afraid of being called unpatriotic."

Bottom line: it's not merely our right to question our government, it's our duty. Whatever the consequences. We can't demand freedom of speech then turn around and say, But please don't say bad things about us. You gotta be a grown up and take your hits.

I am a liberal. Fire away.

Also posted at The Dread Pundit Bluto and Vince Aut Morire.

Posted by: Bluto at 12:36 PM | Comments (25) | Add Comment
Post contains 575 words, total size 4 kb.

1 It's easy for actors like George Looney to be a Lib. He just has to memorize the talking points. That's basically what they already do for a living.

Posted by: Jesusland Carlos at March 13, 2006 01:21 PM (8e/V4)

2 I think his PR person just sent out a bunch of releases to various media outlets - his DVD comes out tomorrow and he's looking for some attention. In the mathematics of Hollywood, attention = sales. Also, how can he even seriously vocalize that he's afraid of criticism (wahh....). What planet does he currently live on? Has he not heard of the fatwa?

Posted by: Heroic Dreamer at March 13, 2006 01:37 PM (aH6Zf)

3 He used to have a blog at journalspace just before the elections and couldn't take the heat so he stopped comments and then the day after Bush won, he stopped posting. We had hoped his disappearance was more serious. There were a few very important things he neglected to highlight in his movie about Murrow. Things that would have, how should I say, completely debunked every single virtue Clooney tried to portray Murrow as having. Clooney's a hack. And a bad one at that.

Posted by: Oyster at March 13, 2006 01:53 PM (g9UJq)

4 Whose George Clooney?

Posted by: hondo at March 13, 2006 03:54 PM (fyKFC)

5 On Oscar night, Hollywood, that well-known enemy of oppression, tyranny, intimidation and fascism, was silent (even though Al-Quaeda asserts that their mutual enemy, President Bush, did a "Bring it on" for the Cartoon Jihad.) George Clooney proved again why many ladies and neo-coms consider him a mind too, and not just a Fortunate Hunk. One of his movies showed the socially redeeming side of Islamic terror, and the other bravely raked over Joe McCarthy, the most raked-over Senator in U.S. history. Gorgeous Georgie proclaimed that Hollywood is ahead of the curve, and he doesn't mind being "out of touch" in the right way. Possibly the closest they came to a cartoon statement was in not naming "Brokeback Mountain" as Best Movie. Were they fearing the evangelicals, or dreading the Koranics calling them 'Homosexual Crusaders'? Everyone agreed that the liveliest (meaning most honest?) moment was the award to rappers Three 6 Mafia for Best Song, another example of black entertainment success in Liberalized America. But unlike most previous winners, like "Secret Love," "The Shadow of Your Smile," "Raindrops Keep Falling On My Head," "Call Me Irresponsible' etc. it's unlikely that Hollywood's 2006 selection can be played in the Middle East except where they need another example of the Great Satan: "It's Hard Out There For a Pimp........" from 'The Dane That Roared' at gringoman.com

Posted by: gringoman at March 13, 2006 04:06 PM (8pPui)

6 You know, just for giggles I think I'll go on over and see just how the commentary goes since he's inviting dissent. What really cracks me up is his "question authority" mantra these days. Sure, it's a good and noble concept. I think we can all agree on that. But two things come to mind since he started that a couple years back. 1) George is particularly fond of questioning authoritative figures which don't follow the liberal agenda (okay, mostly just GWB) and 2) once you've "questioned authority" enough times to get the attention you want, shouldn't you have been right at least often enough to expect others to continue to take you seriously? Now cover me - I'm going in.

Posted by: Oyster at March 13, 2006 05:10 PM (YudAC)

7 I'm embarrassed to say that I'm related to this asshat.

Posted by: Princess Kimberley at March 13, 2006 05:50 PM (9xjdU)

8 Not one measure of value can be given to any liberal's remarks, and doubly so for actors, because they live pampered lives in a fantasy world where everyone else is responsible for their well-being, and they are neve held accountable for their actions, or expected to contribute to the good of humanity in any way.

Posted by: Improbulus Maximus at March 13, 2006 06:01 PM (0yYS2)

9 .. riiiiight, George. No coincidence, whatsover, that you come out with this enciteful rant right when the ad campaign kicks in for the DVD release of your politcally charged movie about overzealous politicians, ... which is next week. None. Whatsoever. ... yeah ... k. dick.

Posted by: Yo at March 13, 2006 07:31 PM (6DvwA)

10 Whose George Clooney?

Posted by: hondo at March 13, 2006 08:51 PM (fyKFC)

11 Translation: Jawa the Hut is a moron who can't even come up with any sensible rebuttals to George's well-thought-out blog entry. Oh, and Oyster, maybe you should try naming some "authority figures" that "follow the Liberal agenda" whom George - or anyone else - should question. And btw - nice debating technique - "There were a few very important things he neglected to highlight in his movie about Murrow. Things that would have, how should I say, completely debunked every single virtue Clooney tried to portray Murrow as having.", but conveniently you don't mention what they were. Nice one - kinda like Dum(b)ya saying there was evidence for WMD's but never saying what it was. And last but not least, we've got Princess Kimberley, authoress of such enlightened bits of ignorant prose as "Let's nuke Iran, enslave the survivors, and put them to work in the irradiated oil fields!" and "Go AIDS!". And here I thought the Neaderthals had gone extinct ...

Posted by: Riot Nrrrdâ„¢ at March 13, 2006 10:35 PM (jkjNi)

12 >>>"Let's nuke Iran, enslave the survivors, and put them to work in the irradiated oil fields!" and "Go AIDS!". lmao! The funniest part is watching the Leftards go absolutely apeshit about stuff like that.

Posted by: Jesusland Carlos at March 13, 2006 10:38 PM (8e/V4)

13 "Leftards"? Oh, that's creative. Labels are for cans. Yeah, nuking people and AIDS are real funny, huh.

Posted by: Riot Nrrrdâ„¢ at March 13, 2006 11:02 PM (jkjNi)

14 "Labels are for cans." They say the empty can rattles the most. Your name is accurate. You are a riot. As in hilarity.

Posted by: Vinnie at March 13, 2006 11:25 PM (f289O)

15 So is "Nrrrrrrrd" like "Grrl"? Awesome dude, I feel your ripe, existential angst. Good thing you trademarked it, lots of folks like to call themselves Nerds. Maybe Café Press can whip up some nerdpacks with "Riot Nrrrrrrrrrrd" on them. We're talking hotcakes baby! Hotcakes! Jesus Vinnie, who lets these bozos in here?

Posted by: The Dread Pundit Bluto at March 13, 2006 11:47 PM (RHG+K)

16 shorter George Clooney: waaaaa!!! little bitch crybaby. I hope he slips another disk.

Posted by: Jesusland Carlos at March 14, 2006 12:32 AM (8e/V4)

17 I just can't get worked up over the pretentious ravings of the hollyweird set. I mean really, Clooney has all the intellectual capacity of pocket lint.

Posted by: nuthin2seehere at March 14, 2006 04:02 AM (blNMI)

18 Isn't it cute when kids have a tantrum and everyone just laughs at them, then they stomp off, infuriated, to break their own toys so as to avenge their dignity? Then they grow up to become liberals, (without maturing), and vote dhimmicratic. More tantrums and self-inflicted punishment, only now, it's considered a Constitutional right, and they want to break all other kids' toys too. You know kiddies, it won't stop hurting until you stop hitting yourselves.

Posted by: Improbulus Maximus at March 14, 2006 05:57 AM (0yYS2)

19 Okay Mr. Nrrrd, I didn't go into detail because to comment on Clooney's version of Murrow would take up quite a bit of space and this isn't my blog. But in order to please the one person here who either doesn't know what particular non-virtues I speak of or thinks everyone here is too ignorant to already know what I'm talking about, I'll give you one point. Now bear in mind this includes but is not limited to this one point in Clooney's attempt at rewriting history because there are a lot more things wrong with this movie than are right: Overall, Murrow took a weekly show dedicated to reporting actual news which traditionally saved the last few minutes of the show for actual commentary and opinion and turned the whole show into an expose' of opinion during the time he was seeking to discredit and vilify McCarthy. He blurred the lines between opinion and actual news in doing this. Several shows as a matter of fact. In "real history" Murrow was roundly criticized at the time for it not only by the "witch hunting" conservatives, but by their liberal counterparts as well. Clooney never alluded to that in his movie and continues to ignore it in real life as he's too busy deifying Murrow undeservedly. And to this day, the Murrow award is routinely awarded to agenda driven journalists in the same mold as Murrow himself. If you want more specifics, just let me know.

Posted by: Oyster at March 14, 2006 06:25 AM (YudAC)

20 Also, Mr. Nrrrd, you couldn't simply ask me what points I was referring to, you had to snidely put me down implying I didn't know what I was talking about. There was nothing "convenient" nor tactical in my brevity. I wasn't debating anyone at the time, but now I am. Ignoring the vitriol in your assessment of me I've responded to your implied challenge and if you're really thinking, you'll see I've partially answered both your questions. So on second thought, if you want more specifics, do your own reading.

Posted by: Oyster at March 14, 2006 07:11 AM (YudAC)

21 Also, Mr. Nrrrd, you couldn't simply ask me what points I was referring to, you had to snidely put me down implying I didn't know what I was talking about. There was nothing "convenient" nor tactical in my brevity. I wasn't debating anyone at the time, but now I am. Ignoring the vitriol in your assessment of me I've responded to your implied challenge and if you're really thinking, you'll see I've partially answered both your questions. So on second thought, if you want more specifics, do your own research. (I hope this doesn't post twice. I got an error)

Posted by: Oyster at March 14, 2006 07:13 AM (YudAC)

22 TRANSLATED its just GEORGE CLOONEY telling the whole world he is a big time supporter of tyrany,oppession,biggotry, and terrorists throught outt he world in other words clooney is saying IM STUPID

Posted by: sandpiper at March 14, 2006 09:14 AM (b1Fi6)

23 I don't think we should take Clooney's words very seriously - he's a handsome (to some) opportunist with a DVD coming out and he and his staff are promoting it in order to increase sales. His activism is a pose - activism is popular in Hollywood - that is, "safe" activism about non-issues - I don't think Clooney thinks a whole lot about what "truth to power" might actually mean - he might have a wrinkled brow if he did too much thinking, and then he would need botox. The wierd thing is that this activism posing is not even very entertaining - expect in the case of Sean Penn - that was hilarious when he got in a boat after Katrina and the photo op showed him rowing in ankle deep water....but I digress.

Posted by: Heroic Dreamer at March 14, 2006 10:04 AM (aH6Zf)

24 Mr. Nrrrd? You there? Or was that just another drive-by that your type is so fond of?

Posted by: Oyster at March 14, 2006 02:01 PM (g9UJq)

25 Hey Rio Trrrd™: "...but conveniently you don't mention what they were." OK, let's call BS on the ClooneyTunes version of history right here: Annie Lee Moss really WAS a Soviet agent. You know -- like Alger Hiss? Any more questions?

Posted by: Ted Seay at March 21, 2006 06:16 AM (80hXa)

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