Oliver Stone has set his sights on doing a movie about President Bush now that United Artists pulled the plug on his My Lai massacre movie. He's already got a script and has approached Josh Brolin to play the title role. This is cute:

Stone declined to give his personal opinion of the president.

"I can't give you that, because the filmmaker has to hide in the work," Stone said. "Here, I'm the referee, and I want a fair, true portrait of the man. How did Bush go from an alcoholic bum to the most powerful figure in the world? It's like Frank Capra territory on one hand, but I'll also cover the demons in his private life, his bouts with his dad and his conversion to Christianity, which explains a lot of where he is coming from. It includes his belief that God personally chose him to be president of the United States, and his coming into his own with the stunning, preemptive attack on Iraq.

Most people think that the president "came into his own" with the stunning, preemptive attack on New York, Ollie-boy.

Stone says that he wants to do a "behind the scenes" biopic like Nixon, his 1995 effort that ended in crushing box-office failure. He's working with the same team that brought us Alexander, so I'd say he's well on his way to making that a reality.

Posted by: Gabriel Malor at 10:51 PM | Comments (42)
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...with Edwards whining in from the sidelines reminding Wolf Blitzer that he's there and did, after all, bother to highlight and layer his hair.

Who won the round?

There can be only one answer: Mitt Romney.

More awful clips of this abortion at Hot Air.

Good Lord, this looked like fun. I wish I'd've watched it.

Posted by: Ace at 07:34 PM | Comments (38)
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Before that, Rush Limbaugh's announcement he may not support a Republican candidate in 2008. He didn't really support George Bush in 1992 either, did he? I can't say I'm surprised.

But this is big. Fred may skip the next debate, marking the unofficial end to his candidacy. And even more shocking, Carl Cameron claims Fred always had his eye on the second slot, not the top job.

Fred Thompson sources say the actor and former Tenn senator may withdraw from the race. There are no plans to attend ThursdayÂ’s Florida debate.

Staffers have been on partial pay since the NH primary. The Senators plans are very fluid. As of 8:45 this evening, there are no plans for any announcement about whether he will stay in the race or not. The team is wrestling with very few options. The Senator is in Nashville visiting his mother (in her 90Â’s) who has been ill.

From THE FIRST DAY Fox News broke the story last March of his candidacy, Thompson has always had a vice presidential bid in mind. Today a top aide even mentioned the idea on Brian and the Judge on Fox News Radio.

I have trouble buying that, but if it's true, this can help only one man: Mitt Romney.

Well actually it could help anyone at the top of the ticket, given that Fred is seen as a thoughtful, genuine conservative. I'd feel 5% better voting for McCain if Fred is his running mate. I'd gladly vote for Giuliani or Romney already, but Fred might help sell those candidates too to skeptical conservatives.

Rudy seems unwilling to do anything to win the candidacy, though, leaving us with Mitt:

Rudy Guiliani says he will continue to discuss issue differences with his rivals but will not go negative. HizzonerÂ’s team went into Fla a month ago prepared to spend more than $8 million dollars to win. Rudy does not have a lot of money left and heÂ’s cratering in the polls. He may need to rethink playing nice.

Duh.

Posted by: Ace at 07:07 PM | Comments (83)
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Silly.

Somebody wasn't thinking their happy thoughts.

Posted by: Dave In Texas at 06:29 PM | Comments (7)
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I am sure youÂ’ve been waiting all day for tonightÂ’s debate sponsored by the Congressional Black Caucus on CNN.

You may remember the last time CNN held a Democratic Debate it was a veritable hot house of plants. I am not sure of the format but you can bet if thereÂ’s audience participation, they will all be Googled right away.

Given the meltdown in the foreign markets and HillaryÂ’s promise to reign in their excesses, I think itÂ’s safe to say there will be an extra helping of socialism on tonightÂ’s menu.

As always, please leave your Democratic Talking Points Drinking Game suggestions in the comments. My initial thoughts are drink for any of the following: 'Bush's tax cuts for the rich', 'pay their fair share' and 'increase spending/investment'.

UPDATE: Lot's of fireworks tonight. If you missed it Hot Air has the best exchange (so far). It includes Obama accusing Hillary of being 'a corporate lawyer with a seat on the Wal-Mart board' and her slamming him for working for a 'Chicago slumlord'.

Posted by: DrewM. at 04:50 PM | Comments (229)
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Let's play a game called, "What if a Republican did this?"

Actually, in this election year and given the Obama factor, this may get some play.

Posted by: DrewM. at 03:04 PM | Comments (75)
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Baseball Crank delivers a post-mortem.

Fred and Rudy have a similar problem. When you're ahead, when you're winning, virtually any strategy will work. Fred entered the race as a front-runner; Rudy had long held that position.

But what works when you're ahead -- and anything does, really -- probably won't work when you're behind and need to do something to change the dynamics of the contest. Neither Fred or Rudy seemed to have a two-minute offense practiced, no real strategy besides "get out to an early lead and then sit on the ball." So when their opponents went ahead, they continued with the same sort of prevent defense.

I doubt Rudy can rally at this point. But if he's himself to have any chance of surviving until Mega Tuesday, he has to recognize he's now behind by 12 points in New York of all places and he's going to have to start being a lot more aggressive and opportunistic against McCain. Otherwise he might as well drop out now and let Mitt Romney try to peel off his support.

I'm kinda liking Romney at this point. He seems to be the only Republican in the race, apart from McCain, who really wanted this damn thing.

Via Hot Air, which is speculating about Fred Thompson serving as McCain's VP. I don't know -- why would Thompson give up a lucrative and interesting career in Hollywood to take the thankless job of VP? The only guy in the field who I can see being interested in that position is Huckabee.

Posted by: Ace at 01:14 PM | Comments (69)
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Start another thought-crime investigation, stat!

One of the complainants against me is someone I would describe as a radical Muslim imam, Syed Soharwardy. He grew up in the madrassas of Pakistan and he lectures on the Saudi circuit. He advocates sharia law for all countries, including Canada. His website is rife with Islamic supremacism — offensive to many Canadian Jews, gentiles, women and gays. But his sensitivities — his Saudi-Pakistani values — have been offended by me.

And so now the secular government of Alberta is enforcing his fatwa against the cartoons.

It's the same for Mohamed Elmasry, the complainant against Maclean's magazine for publishing an excerpt from Mark Steyn's book, America Alone. Egyptian-born Elmasry has publicly said that any adult Jew in Israel is a legitimate target for a terrorist attack, a grossly offensive statement.

Both the Canadian and B.C. Human Rights Commissions are now hearing his complaints against Maclean's.

How did it come to be that rough and, I would say, bigoted men such as Mr. Soharwardy and Mr. Elmasry could, by simply claiming that their tender feelings were hurt, sic a government bureaucracy on a magazine, or anyone for that matter?

On this point, I agree with Mr. Soharwardy and Mr. Elmasry: I blame the Jews.

A generation ago, illiberal elements in the "official" Jewish community pressed Canadian governments to introduce laws limiting free speech. The targets of those laws were invariably poor, unorganized, harmless neo-Nazi cranks and conspiracy theorists such as Ernst Zundel and Jim Keegstra — nobodies who were turned into international celebrities when they were prosecuted for their thought crimes.

But now come Mr. Elmasry and Mr. Soharwardy and their ilk, using the very precedents set by the Canadian Jewish Congress.

Before Mr. Soharwardy went to the Alberta Human Rights Commission, he went to the Calgary Police Service and demanded that they arrest me. He's done that three times now, and they've rejected him every time. But he only had to ask the willing enforcers of the human rights commission once.

What a strange place Canada is in 2008, where the police care more about human rights than the human rights commissions do, where fundamentalist Muslims use hate-speech laws drafted by secular Jews, and where a government bureaucrat can interrogate a publisher for 90 minutes, and be shocked when he won't shake her hand in greeting.

Why aren't these Islamofascists similarly being prosecuted for thought-crimes? I realize this is not a perfect solution by any means -- it would be preferable if Canada stopped stating that "free speech is an American concept" -- but if Ezra Levant and Mark Steyn have to face this grilling, why should their anti-semitic hateful persecutors not face the same treatment?

They won't, of course, be interrogated by the thought police, for much the same reason that Ezra Levant can freely say "I blame the Jews" without fear of harassment. Only a country's official state religion is privileged to be so protected, and for Canada, Islam is now the de facto official state religion, the only religion which cannot be denigrated without state consequences.

Posted by: Ace at 12:43 PM | Comments (14)
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Sure sheÂ’s said some goofy things in the past but now thereÂ’s another reason besides her looks to cut her some slack, she joined a USO tour of the Persian Gulf military installations.

Johansson wasted no time after she arrived at the packed USO and headed toward the assembled crowd to introduce herself and meet her peers.

“It’s important to give people a piece of home and to boost morale,” Johansson said about her visit. “Everybody out here is risking everything, giving us one of the biggest gifts they can. I want to be out here to support them.”

JohanssonÂ’s friendly demeanor and sincere interest in her fans quickly won them over.

“I didn’t know what to expect or what she was going to be like,” said Sgt. Brian Dryer, a pay agent with the 11th MEU command element. “She seemed truly interested and wanted to spend time getting to know you.”

I love how she knew most of those guys weren't there to discuss her filmography and had the good sense to wear a nice tight sweater in that second shot.

Good for her.

h/t Guidons, Guidons, Guidons!

Posted by: DrewM. at 12:26 PM | Comments (37)
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The sell-off seems based on US declines. So it could be the US declines are already baked in the cake and won't fall further.

But I doubt that. This seems big enough to rattle US investors, at least for a time.

Stocks fell sharply worldwide Monday following declines on Wall Street last week amid investor pessimism over the U.S. government's stimulus plan to prevent a recession.

U.S. markets were closed for Martin Luther King Jr. Day, but the downbeat mood from last week's market declines there circled through Europe, Asia and the Americas. Britain's benchmark FTSE-100 slumped 5.5 percent to 5,578.20, France's CAC-40 Index tumbled 6.8 percent to 4,744.15, and Germany's blue-chip DAX 30 plunged 7.2 percent to 6,790.19.

In Asia, India's benchmark stock index tumbled 7.4 percent, while Hong Kong's blue-chip Hang Seng index plummeted 5.5 percent to 23,818.86, its biggest percentage drop since the Sept. 11, 2001, terror attacks.

Canadian stocks fell as well, with the S&P/TSX composite index on the Toronto Stock Exchange down 4 percent in early afternoon trading. In Brazil, stocks plunged 6.9 percent on the main index of Sao Paulo's Bovespa exchange.

Investors dumped shares because they were skeptical that an economic stimulus plan President Bush announced Friday would shore up the economy that has been battered by problems in its housing and credit markets. The plan, which requires approval by Congress, calls for about $145 billion worth of tax relief to encourage consumer spending.

"We've taken our lead from the Asian markets who have not been impressed by the U.S. There's debate if there's going to be a recession in the U.S. I don't think there's much chance of that though," said Richard Hunter an analyst at Hargreaves Lansdown Stockbrokers Ltd. in London.

Concerns about the outlook for the U.S. economy, a major export market for Asian companies, has sent the region's markets sliding in 2008. Just last Wednesday, the Hang Seng index sank 5.4 percent.

"It's another horrible day," said Francis Lun, a general manager at Fulbright Securities in Hong Kong. "Today it's because of disappointment that the U.S. stimulus (package) is too little, too late and investors feel it won't help the economy recover."

It's the biggest sell-off in London since the 9/11 attacks.

Never fear, though: Hillary Clinton says that, if she is president, "the federal government would take a more active role in the economy to address what she called the excesses of the market and of the Bush administration." So that should presumably stop all this unpredictable, non-state-authorized buying and selling behavior.

Posted by: Ace at 11:43 AM | Comments (105)
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