Surprise! Bin Laden Fond of Jimmy Carter and Noam Chomsky

There's a reason they're called useful idiots.

In 2007, he complained that Democratic control of Congress had not ended the war in Iraq, a fact he attributed to the pernicious influence of “big corporations.” In other messages he commented on the writings of Noam Chomsky, the leftist professor at M.I.T., and praised former President Jimmy Carter’s book supporting Palestinian rights.

You may recall bin Laden sounded ominously like a certain former Vice President.

Osama bin Laden, the leader of Al Qaeda, blamed the United States and developed countries for not halting climate change and said that the global economy should immediately abandon its reliance on the American dollar, according to an audiotape released Friday by the broadcaster Al Jazeera.

“Talk about climate change is not an ideological luxury but a reality,” Mr. bin Laden was quoted as saying in a report on Al Jazeera’s English-language Web site. “All of the industrialized countries, especially the big ones, bear responsibility for the global warming crisis.”

Leftwing Drone Cites "Nobel Prize-Winning Economist" Paul Krugman at Town Hall, Hearty Laughter Ensues

Seems the Nobel Prize just isn't as prestigious as it once was, back in the days when only the true greats like Yassar Arafat and Al Gore were awarded the medal.

Eh, never mind.

The good part comes around the 1:20 mark.



Andrew Stiles has more over at NRO, including the ThinkProgress version of the video which conveniently edits out the gut-busting laughter at Krugman's expense.

Cross-posted.

Jimmy Carter Heads to North Korea

Nine years after receiving the Nobel Peace Prize for his efforts to get the North Koreans to dismantle their nuclear program, Jimmy Carter returns for another stab at it.

Ex-U.S. President Jimmy Carter and three other former leaders arrived in Beijing on Sunday en route to North Korea to discuss the revival of nuclear disarmament talks.

Carter and the group of veteran statesmen known as the Elders are to travel to Pyongyang on Tuesday as part of international efforts to restart the negotiations on ending North Korea's nuclear program.

The group, which includes former Finnish President Martti Ahtisaari, former Norwegian Prime Minister Gro Brundtland and former Irish President Mary Robinson, said it also plans to discuss North Korea's chronic food shortages.

International disarmament talks with North Korea have been stalled for the past two years amid growing concerns over its nuclear programs.

"At a time when official dialogue with the Democratic People's Republic of Korea appears to be at a standstill, we aim to see how we may be of assistance in reducing tensions and help the parties address key issues including denuclearization," Carter was quoted as saying in a statement.

The Norks have a fondness for the useful idiot.

Carter, a Democrat from Georgia who was president from 1977 to 1981, is well regarded in North Korea despite its longtime animosity with the U.S.

Aw: Obama Fan Organizes Koran Reading at Capitol

If we've learned anything this week it's you can be a total nonentity with a handful of kook fringe followers one day and a media obsession the next. That crank in Florida proved that already. Now we have another douchebag looking for his 15 minutes. Nine years ago today the Capitol was likely a target of Islamists. Today American dhimmis are reading their inspiration there.

A Virginia man has organized a Quran reading on the Capitol’s west lawn Saturday afternoon, an event planned to counter Florida pastor Terry Jones’ threat to burn the Muslim holy text.

The reading will proceed even though Jones has backed off. A Facebook page about the planned 4 p.m. quiet reading says it is designed to “counter the forces of ignorance and intolerance.”

“This event is not about religious proselytizing, but about furthering understanding and tolerance (in fact, the people organizing it are all either Christians or Agnostics). Please join us for a few hours of quiet reading in the name of brotherhood and peace,” the website states.

Tony Tribby, 43, noted that even though Jones has canceled his plan, there have been threats by others – including the extreme Westboro Baptist Church in Kansas – to undertake Quran burnings.

Naturally, he's an Obamaton.

Tribby said he volunteered for Howard Dean’s (D) unsuccessful presidential campaign in 2004 and for President Barack Obama’s campaign in 2008, but that Saturday’s Quran reading is the first political event he has organized.

His MySpace page lists his heroes as Howard Dean, John Conyers, and Janeane Garofalo, among others.

Code Pink Crank Laments: 'We Don’t Have a Very Vibrant Anti-war Movement Anymore'

What's a Castro-loving psychopath to do when things go bad for her guy?

As President Barack Obama formally declared an end to combat operations in Iraq this week, the anti-war movement that helped sweep him into office — and that worked for seven years to bring U.S. troops home — finds itself struggling for survival.

Several factors — war fatigue; a deep, lingering recession; and the presence of a Democratic president they helped elect — have drained the energy from organizations that led the fight against the Iraq war. Some of the most influential anti-war activist groups that once summoned half a million people to march against the Iraq war and the policies of President George W. Bush are straining to raise the money and attention to fight what they see as Obama’s military entrenchment in Afghanistan.

“We don’t have a very vibrant anti-war movement anymore,” lamented Medea Benjamin, founder of Code Pink, one of the anti-war movement’s most visible organizations. “The issues have not changed very much. … Now we have a surge [in Afghanistan] that we would have been furious about under George Bush, yet it’s hard to mobilize people under Obama. We have the same anti -war movement and not the same passion.”

MoveOn.org, which produced a 2007 anti-war newspaper ad labeling Gen. David Petraeus “General Betray Us” for the surge in Iraq, has largely been silent, despite a similar U.S. strategy in Afghanistan with Petraeus at the helm. Cindy Sheehan, perhaps the most famous anti-war protester, believes the peace movement is over. And United for Peace and Justice — once the largest of three major anti-war coalitions — has practically dissolved.

Leslie Cagan, UPJ’s founder, resigned last year after nearly seven years leading the group.

“I was totally exhausted,” said Cagan, 63. “I have a long history of anti-war activism — about 45 years — but the last eight or nine years have been totally intense. In a post 9/11 world, it’s just nonstop.”

Fighting your own country all these years can really take a toll, huh? What a washed-up Communist to do? Well, now their battlefield has shifted. Rather than supporting America's enemies, their primary mission is propping up the people they helped elect.

After fighting the Bush administration for the better part of a decade, the anti-war movement can barely draw public attention to Afghanistan because of kitchen-table issues like the worsening economy, the increasingly unpopular health care overhaul and high unemployment. Meanwhile, the leaders have kept their grumbling about Afghanistan mostly to themselves, to keep Obama’s sagging poll numbers from sinking further or jeopardizing the Democratic majority in Congress.

“A lot of the people who were part of this movement have retreated,” Code Pink’s Benjamin said. “They wanted to give up on the timetable [for withdrawing from Iraq]. Some are still reluctant to criticize a Democratic president now with the midterms coming up.”

So it was never about the troops and all about politics.

Thanks for clearing that up, Medea. All this leaves Cindy Sheehan very confused.

“I basically think that it’s over,” Sheehan said. “And the reason that it’s over is that so many of those same groups that you’re talking about supported Obama. … I just don’t think that if you’re anti-war you can support somebody who is for war.”

Mother Sheehan is still a diehard. She thinks Obama's a war criminal.

OK, Dan, You Can Go Away Now

The thing that wouldn't leave may no longer have a choice.

New York's highest court on Tuesday declined to hear an appeal by former CBS Evening News anchor Dan Rather of his lawsuit against CBS Corp.

In a brief summary order, the New York Court of Appeals denied Rather's motion to file an appeal of a lower court's decision in September dismissing Rather's claim.

A lawyer for Rather didn't immediately return a phone call seeking comment on Tuesday.

Rather had alleged in part that CBS violated his contract by failing to provide him enough airtime on "60 Minutes" or "60 Minutes II" after removing him as anchor of CBS Evening News in March 2005 following a controversy over a 2004 report about President George W. Bush's service in the Texas Air National Guard.

Judge Orders Lynne Stewart to Prison Immediately

As if we needed further evidence why having terror masterminds on trial in New York City is a terrible idea, we'll remind everyone of this piece of human debris known as Lynne Stewart. Get a good look at her. You likely won't be seeing that face for awhile.

Disbarred radical lawyer Lynne Stewart is going to jail - maybe for a lot longer than she thought.

A federal appeals court Tuesday upheld her conviction for smuggling messages to her jailed terrorist client, and said she deserves more than the 28 months she got because she may have lied at her trial.

Stewart, 70, is to surrender to U.S. Marshals immediately. The Brooklyn resident has been free on bail since 2006.

She was sentenced to two years and four months in prison in 2005 for helping Sheik Omar Abdel-Rahman talk to militants from prison after his 1996 conviction for plotting to blow up bridges and tunnels in New York City and assassinate Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak.

Let's hope Eric Holder's former associates are paying attention to Stweart's plight.

If you need a refresher on how radical Stewart is and who she associates with, here's a primer.

Lynne Stewart is the radical attorney who has been indicted by Attorney General John Ashcroft for enabling her client, the terrorist Sheik, Omar Abdul Rahman, to carry out his murderous agendas while in prison by helping him to communicate with his terrorist organization in Egypt. Rahman was the spiritual leader of a cell that carried out the first World Trade Center bombing and was planning to blow up the Lincoln and Holland Tunnels. Stewart was recruited to the Rahman case by Lyndon Johnson's Attorney General, Ramsey Clark, who has a long history of anti-American causes dating back to the Vietnam War.

Ramsey Clark is the founder of the International Action Committee (IAC), a pro-Saddam, pro-Milosevic organization that regards America as the world's leading and most threatening terrorist state. In a previous article about the "peace" organization A.N.S.W.E.R (March 29, 2002), I noted IAC's interlinking directorate with the Workers World Party (WWP), a Stalinist organization which was created in 1959 as a splinter of the Trotskyist Socialist Workers Party. In that year, WWP leader Sam Marcy and his comrades supported the Soviet suppression of the Hungarian Revolution which had sought unsuccessfully to break free from the Soviet empire. WWP cadres staff the IAC offices and share political platforms. For example, WWP leaders spoke at an IAC rally in 1995 condemning Republicans generally and The Contract with America, specifically. Among them was Gavrielle Gemma, who has been credited with recruiting Clark to the IAC.

More here.

Thanks to Ed Morrissey for the link. More here.

By the way, since my topic in today's column is Attorney General Holder's sudden concern over delays in the military commission system, it's worth pointing out that, for conduct that started around 1999, Stewart was indicted in 2002; her trial did not begin until mid-2004 and took about eight months; after that, they dawdled for over a year before finally imposing sentence in October 2006; now, a decade after the conduct, seven years after arrest, four years after trial, and three years after sentence — and mind you, she's been free on bail since 2002 — the appeal has at long last been decided, and it has resulted in . . . a remand for further sentencing proceedings. And, after they someday occur, there will surely be another trip to the Second Circuit, and then an appeal to the Supreme Court. After that, the habeas corpus petitions start . . .

Ms. Plame Wilson's 15 Minutes Nearly Up

May this mercifully be one of the final chapters with this useful idiot.

A federal appeals court has ruled that the Central Intelligence Agency didn't violate the free speech rights of ex-CIA agent Valerie Plame Wilson when it refused to allow her to publish details of her possible pre-2002 work for the agency.

In an order Thursday, the U.S. Second Circuit Court of Appeals upheld a lower court's ruling that the CIA didn't infringe on Wilson's First Amendment rights when it refused a request by Wilson and her publisher, Simon & Schuster Inc., to publish details of her work with the agency prior to 2002 as part of a memoir.

"Because any information concerning Ms. Wilson's possible pre-2002 agency affiliation remains properly classified, and because Ms. Wilson is obligated by a secrecy agreement with the CIA not to disclose classified information, the district court correctly ruled that plaintiffs cannot demonstrate a First Amendment violation in this case," U.S. Circuit Judge Reena Raggi wrote on behalf of the three-judge panel.

Wilson had argued the CIA "officially disclosed" the dates of her pre-2002 service in a letter sent to her in February 2006 and her pre-2002 dates of service are now a matter of widespread public knowledge and it would be unreasonable to keep them classified.

A lawyer for Wilson didn't immediately return a phone call seeking comment Thursday.

She probably wants her (cough cough) privacy.

Of course we can only hope those 15 minutes are near an end. Except we still have this coming down the pike. I'm sure with Sean Penn in it it will be fair and impartial.

Obama's Useful Idiot Conference Call

With public approval for his ObamaCare scam rapidly dwindling, the President in Training Pants is now reduced to holding conference calls with far left bloggers, probably the only people still gullible enough to believe anything this guy has to say.

So much for uniting the people by huddling with the most divisive people in the country.

"I know the blogs are best at debunking myths that can slip through a lot of the traditional media outlets," he said. "And that is why you are going to play such an important role in our success in the weeks to come."

Yes, debunking the myths, such as the tall tale that Trig Palin isn't Sarah's baby, an outlandish lie that began with the Daily Kos, one of those in the conference call.

Can't you just feel the unity?

They're just kvelling over here.

Sounds like blogger history was made. While we've had teleconferences with Congress and candidates for President, I can't remember one being held by the sitting President. Congrats to those who were invited to be on it. So far I see McJoan at Daily Kos, John Amato at Crooks and Liars and Jonathan Singer of MyDD and DDay at Digby's.

Real opinion makers there.

Preaching to the converted. If Obama believes they're representative of any mainstream opinion, then he's far beyond hope.

Update: A roundup of reaction here.

Hollywood Useful Idiots Visit Iran

These boobs never met an enemy of America that they won't embrace. The only surprise here is Spicoli didn't join them.

A top-level team from the Hollywood movie industry traveled to Iran on a non-government mission, for a weekend of cultural and creative exchange meetings, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences said Friday.

"I can confirm that a group of Academy members ... are currently in Iran" on a "completely private initiative for educational and creative exchange and with no political agenda," AMPAS director of communications Leslie Unger told AFP.

She confirmed Iranian media reports saying the delegation included AMPAS president Sid Ganis, former president Frank Pierson, actress Annette Bening and producer William Horberg.

"The Academy group did receive visas and is currently in Tehran," Unger said.

Iranian media said the AMPAS group would hold a series of meetings Saturday and Sunday in Tehran.

US-Iranian diplomatic relations were severed 30 years ago after Iran's Islamic revolution, and the rift has been further aggravated since Tehran controversially revived its nuclear program.

The Iranians, naturally, welcome the useful idiots with open arms.

Ironically, last Sunday at the Oscars it was a virtual three-hour infomercial for gay marriage. I wonder if these patriots will ask their gracious hosts about the abuse gays suffer under Islam?

In many Islamic countries, homosexuality is considered an executable offense. In Iran, homosexuals are sometimes crucified. The absurdity of Iran’s treatment of homosexuals was on display when Mahmoud Ahmadinejad visited New York in 2007. He told an audience at Columbia University, “In Iran, we don’t have homosexuals like in your country. In Iran, we do not have this phenomenon. I don’t know who has told you we have that.”

Chavez Cuts Off Cheap Oil, Useful Idiot Joe Kennedy Hardest Hit

No longer useful

Communist thug Hugo Chavez has announced plans to cut off "charitable" contributions of cheap home heating oil to poor U.S. households and none other than useful idiot Joe Kennedy is suffering the brunt.

Citgo Petroleum Corp., the U.S. refiner owned by the Venezuelan government, will suspend charitable contributions of home heating oil to poor U.S. households -- a sign that falling oil prices may hamstring Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez, whose administration has used an oil windfall to win voters' loyalty at home and allies abroad.

In a surprise announcement, former U.S. Rep. Joseph P. Kennedy II said Venezuela would stop deliveries to his Boston-based nonprofit, Citizens' Energy, which last winter received $100 million of fuel that was distributed throughout the Northeast. Mr. Kennedy said Citgo cited falling oil prices and the world economic crisis for forcing the company "to re-evaluate all of its social programs." Neither Citgo nor the Venezuelan government had any comment.

Chavez, good friend of new Huffington Post blogger Bill Ayers, has his priorities, mainly propping up the failed Communist state of Cuba.

The move raises questions about whether Mr. Chavez can afford to continue his oil-fueled largess. Venezuela gives cut-priced fuel to many Latin American nations and sends some 100,000 barrels a day of oil and oil products to Cuba in exchange, in part, for the services of 30,000 Cuban doctors, nurses, dentists, and sports trainers. In 2007, Cuba valued total Venezuelan aid at $7.8 billion. Some analysts say Venezuela is now as big a donor to cash-strapped Cuba as the U.S.S.R. was back in the Cold War.

Kennedy, the useful idiot, refuses to give up.

At a press conference yesterday, Kennedy said Citizens Energy likely will be forced to cut about 20 percent of its heating oil distribution in Massachusetts and halt the program altogether in other states unless it can persuade Citgo to change its mind or can raise money elsewhere to buy oil and fund grants. In addition, he said Citizens would have to lay off 20 staffers.

Kennedy said he has repeatedly reached out to the Venezuelan government, which owns Citgo, in an effort to persuade the company to resume oil donations. He also urged people to write to Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez. Citgo is the US distribution arm of Venezuela's state oil company, Petroleos de Venezuela, which Chávez indirectly controls.

"We are doing everything we can," Kennedy said. "We're not ready to give up."

Kennedy is being met with little sympathy from patriotic Americans.

"Maybe now, instead of acting as propaganda tool of socialist dictator Hugo Chávez, Joe Kennedy can focus on simply helping those who couldn't afford to question the real cost behind his heating oil," said Barney Keller, spokesman for the Massachusetts Republican Party.

Obama's Useful Idiots Discovering They're No Longer Useful

Hope, change and whining. The election is over 16 days now and all the promises of a shiny new progressive world haven't yet materialized. It's one thing to pander to the far left, but when it comes time to actually be president, Barack Obama at least realizes stocking his cabinet with nutroots darlings isn't the way to go.

Look, there are a lot of talented progressives who could be in an Obama cabinet.

Joseph Stiglitz is a Nobel Prize-winner in economics and a critic of corporate globalization. He should be Treasury Secretary.

Senator Russ Feingold is a champion of civil liberties. He should be Attorney General.

Robert Greenstein is head of Center on Budget and Policy Priorities. He would make a much better OMB director.

Arlene Holt Baker, executive vice president of the AFL-CIO, would be a tremendous Secretary of Labor.

And if Obama really wanted change, if he really wanted to honor progressives who backed him early on and then did the grunt work against McCain, he’d nominate Dennis Kucinich as Secretary of State.

That sure would indicate a welcome departure from empire as usual.

But at this point, progressives are getting absolutely nothing from Obama.

No wonder all he's taking from these idiots is their money. Seriously, Dennis Kucinich as Secretary of State? Good grief.

Thanks to Instapundit for the link!

Know Your Constituency: Soros-Backed Democrats Outline 'Educate the Idiots' Campaign

They obviously know who votes for them.

In a confidential internal memorandum obtained by Face The State (PDF), the Colorado Democracy Alliance outlines a roster of “operatives” who worked for Democratic victory in the 2006 general election. The document outlines specific tasks for various members of the state’s liberal infrastructure, including a campaign to “educate the idiots,” assigned to the state’s AFL-CIO union. Among the operation’s intended targets: “minorities, GED’s, drop-outs.”

Individuals named in the document, marked “CONFIDENTIAL,” “for internal use only,” and “DO NOT DISTRIBUTE,” are high-level elected Democrats including House Speaker Andrew Romanoff, former Senate President Joan Fitz-Gerald, as well as Gov. Bill Ritter’s press aide and former campaign chief Evan Dreyer. All are specially marked as “off-the-record or covert.”

Mentioned as a “critical contact” was Dominic DelPapa, a partner at Ikon Public Affairs. DelPapa was at the center of recent controversy stemming from the February leak of a confidential memo he authored detailing a multi-million dollar “foot on throat” attack on Republican U.S. Senate candidate Bob Schaffer, among others.

CoDA is one of 18 state-based versions of the nationally focused Democracy Alliance, a self-described “investment partnership of business and philanthropic leaders” funding liberal infrastructure nationwide. For more information about the Democracy Alliance in Colorado, see day one and two of Face The State’s week-long series on the group.

In a podcast released by the DNC Host Committee Tuesday, national Democracy Alliance founder Rob Stein explains the need for large, secretive donor networks. “We do not have the infrastructure that the right has built, yet,” he said. “But there has never in the history of progressivedom (sic) been a clearer, more strategic, more focused, more disciplined, better financed group of institutions operating at the state and national level.”

Hmm. Did someone say secret donor network?

Notice they're not targeting the media.

Those idiots are in the tank gratis.

The Democracy Alliance, naturally, is a pet cause of the evil George Soros, among others.

A year after its founding, Democracy Alliance has followed up on its pledge to become a major power in the liberal movement. It has lavished millions on groups that have been willing to submit to its extensive screening process and its demands for secrecy.

These include the Center for American Progress, a think tank with an unabashed partisan edge, as well as Media Matters for America, which tracks what it sees as conservative bias in the news media. Several alliance donors are negotiating a major investment in Air America, a liberal talk-radio network.

But the large checks and demanding style wielded by Democracy Alliance organizers in recent months have caused unease among Washington's community of Democratic-linked organizations. The alliance has required organizations that receive its endorsement to sign agreements shielding the identity of donors. Public interest groups said the alliance represents a large source of undisclosed and unaccountable political influence.

'The Big Powers Are Going Down'

Another absurd claim from the hairy munchkin.

Iran's president on Tuesday blamed the U.S. and other "big powers" for global ills such as nuclear proliferation and AIDS, and accused them of exploiting the U.N. for their own gain and the developing world's loss.

But, President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said, time was on the poor countries' side.

"The big powers are going down," Ahmadinejad told foreign ministers of the Nonaligned Movement meeting in Tehran. "They have come to the end of their power, and the world is on the verge of entering a new, promising era."

The more than 100-member NAM is made up of such diverse members as communist Cuba, Jamaica and India and depicts itself as bloc-free. But most members share a critical view of the U.S and the developed world in general.

No doubt most Democrats agree with him. They hate that America is a powerful country.

Why, it was just yesterday House Speaker Nancy Pelosi was welcoming statements from Ahmadinejad. I wonder why she'll have to say today?

Meanwhile, the psychotic dwarf revealed that he spoke with a presidential candidate last year.

Hmm.

Speaking of useful idiots, prominent Democrat Noam Chomsky adds some more America-bashing.

However, the influential American philosopher and author, Noam Chomsky, has a different view.

“I do not think the difference between participation and listening is a diplomatic quibble,” Chomsky told the Mehr News Agency in a recent interview.

“The Bush administration is under severe international and domestic pressure to rein in its radical extremism, which has led to catastrophes everywhere, and might bring about even worse ones” the American lecturer noted.

Take a breath, dude.

Brzezinski: McCain Would Start World War IV

Always nice to see one of Jimmy Carter's hacks saying something stupid for international consumption. As an added bonus, he's being quoted by the Iranians.

Thanks, Zbigniew.

Former US President Jimmy Carter's national security adviser Zbigniew Brzezinski criticized US officials in Senator McCain's camp for pushing the presumptive Republican nominee toward a radical foreign policy on issues such as Iran.

Brzezinski described McCain's presidency as an 'appalling concept' as it would lead to the World War IV, arguing that from the viewpoint of figures surrounding the Arizona senator the Cold War counted as World War III.

"Well, if McCain is president and if his Secretary of State is Joe Lieberman and his Secretary of Defense is [Rudolph] Giuliani, we will be moving towards the World War IV that they have been both favoring and predicting," Brzezinski cautioned.

What an idiot.

Naturally, he's a top Obama foreign policy adviser.

Senator Obama is standing by one of his top foreign policy advisers, Zbigniew Brzezinski, despite concerns that aligning with the former aide to President Carter will undermine Mr. Obama's support with the pro-Israel community.

Mr. Brzezinski, who served as national security adviser in the Carter administration, introduced Mr. Obama before a major policy speech on Iraq yesterday in Iowa, where the Illinois senator praised his work on the Camp David Accords and called him "one of our most outstanding thinkers."

Last year he was hailed as Obama's new brain.

Hot Air links. Thanks!

Circus Time: Desperate Democrats To Have New Boytoy McClellan Testify

Talk about being unable to let go. Despite everyone on the planet knowing it was Richard Armitage who "leaked" the name of non-covert CIA employee Valerie Plame, the idiots in Congress plan to have the hapless Scott McClellan up to Congress to testify next week.

Expect gave-to-gavel coverage of this charade on PMSNBC and CNN.

President Bush's former spokesman, Scott McClellan, will testify before a House committee next week about whether Vice President Dick Cheney ordered him to make misleading public statements about the leaking of CIA agent Valerie Plame's identity.

McClellan will testify publicly and under oath before the House Judiciary Committee on June 20 about the White House's role in the leak and its response, his attorneys, Michael and Jane Tigar, said on Monday.

In his new book, "What Happened: Inside the Bush White House and Washington's Culture of Deception," McClellan said he was misled by others, possibly including Cheney, about the role of I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby in the leak. McClellan has said publicly that Bush and Cheney "directed me to go out there and exonerate Scooter Libby."

The statements prompted House Judiciary Committee Chairman John Conyers, D-Mich., to invite McClellan to the hearing "concerning reported attempts to cover up the involvement of White House officials in the leak of" Plame's identity.

Plame's CIA identity was leaked to the news media by several top Bush administration officials in 2003, including Libby and former top White House political adviser Karl Rove. Last July, Bush commuted Libby's 2 1/2-year sentence, sparing him from serving any prison time after being convicted of perjury, obstructing justice and lying to the FBI.

Meanwhile, the certifiably insane Dennis Kucinich is still pushing impeachment. The tin-foil is wrapped a wee bit too tight on his skull.

Useful Idiots, 2007 Edition

Excellent piece on why certain mental incompetents from Hollywood and dopey models are drawn to Communist thug Hugo Chavez.

The New Fellow-Travelers

In fact, for the malcontents of Hollywood, academia, and the catwalks, Chávez is an ideal ally. Just as the sympathetic foreigners whom Lenin called "useful idiots" once supported Russia abroad, their modern equivalents provide the Venezuelan president with legitimacy, attention, and good photographs. He, in turn, helps them overcome the frustration John Reed once felt—the frustration of living in an annoyingly unrevolutionary country where people have to change things by law. For all his brilliance, Reed could not bring socialism to America. For all his wealth, fame, media access, and Hollywood power, Sean Penn cannot oust George W. Bush. But by showing up in the company of Chávez, he can at least get a lot more attention for his opinions.

As for Venezuelan politics, or the Venezuelan people, they don't matter at all. The country is simply playing a role filled in the past by Russia, Cuba, and Nicaragua—a role to which it is, at the moment, uniquely suited. Clearly, Venezuela is easier to idealize than Iran and North Korea, the former's attitude to women being not conducive to fashion models, the latter being downright hostile to Hollywood. Venezuela is also warm, relatively close, and a country of beautiful waterfalls.

Most of all, Venezuela's leader not only dislikes the American president—so do most other heads of state—but refers to him as "the devil," a "dictator," a "madman," and a "killer." Who cares what Chávez actually does when Sean Penn isn't looking? Ninety years after the tragedy of the Russian revolution, Venezuela has become the "kingdom more bright than any heaven had to offer" for a whole new generation of fellow-travelers. As long as the oil lasts.

More from Babalu Blog.

Rave Reviews Back Home for Mahmoud

The dissidents back in Iran must be heartened to know the useful idiots here in the United States fulfilled their role today. Get a load of this report.

Despite entire US media objections, negative propagation and hue and cry in recent days over IRI President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's scheduled address at Colombia University, he gave his lecture and answered students questions here on Monday afternoon.

On second day of his entry in New York, and amid standing ovation of the audience that had attended the hall where the Iranian President was to give his lecture as of early hours of the day, Ahmadinejad said that Iran is not going to attack any country in the world.

Before President Ahamadinejad's address, Colombia University Chancellor in a brief address told the audience that they would have the chance to hear Iran's stands as the Iranian President would put them forth.

He said that the Iranians are a peace loving nation, they hate war, and all types of aggression.

Referring to the technological achievements of the Iranian nation in the course of recent years, the president considered them as a sign for the Iranians' resolute will for achieving sustainable development and rapid advancement.

The audience on repeated occasion applauded Ahmadinejad when he touched on international crises.

At the end of his address President Ahmadinejad answered the students' questions on such issues as Israel, Palestine, Iran's nuclear program, the status of women in Iran and a number of other matters.

See, what was all that fuss about?

Buffoon Moore Heading to Iran

Please, just keep him.

Michael Moore Comes to Iran

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.

Check out his bio.

Michael Moore was born in Flint, Michigan April 23 1954. He studied journalism at the University of Michigan-Flint, but also pursued other hobbies such as Gun shooting, for which he even won a competition. Michael started working as an editor for the journal of the University he attended at the beginning to his journalism career. He then turned to filmmaking, and to earn the money for the budget of his first film Roger & Me (1989) he ran neighborhood bingo games. He eventually got himself into leading a string of documentaries and TV series all predominantly around the same subject; attacks on politicians and business corporations, getting his opinion around and about. He landed his first big hit with Bowling for Columbine (2002) about the bad points of the freedom of weapon holding in America, which earned him an Oscar and a big reputation. He then shook the world with his even bigger hit Fahrenheit 9/11 (2004) - making fun of President George W. Bush. Michael is known for having the guts to give his opinion in public, which not many people are courageous enough to do, and for that is respected by many.

Leftwing Idol Was a Homophobic Killer

Maybe we'll have some Che t-shirt burnings to follow. Then again, the left really adores killers, so perhaps we'll see even more of those insipid shirts.

He’s the ultimate symbol of radical chic but was Che Guevara really a homophobic, racist square who personally ordered the jailing and executions of innocent men, women and children?

That’s according to Humberto Fontova, the author of “Exposing the Real Che Guevara and the Useful Idiots Who Idolize Him,” who claims that Guevara probably would have imprisoned or punished most of his celebrity fans, from Johnny Depp to Angelina Jolie.

More at Hot Air .