For some reason, some liberals in Hollywood like to give dictators the benefit of the doubt. Their five-decade support for Fidel Castro’s iron rule over 11 million voiceless Cubans is inexplicable. Their “Blame America First” philosophy has brought them into relationships with some of the worlds most nefarious people – like Yasser Arafat and Saddam Hussein.

This shouldn’t surprise us, Hollywood is a fantasy factory – so it seems that the foreign policy experience of these folks reflects more their career than it does any true understanding of the reality of the governments they so enthusiastically defend. Recently, Hollywood liberals have found a new group of dictators to support. They now heedlessly defend the nouveau authoritarians of South America, like Hugo Chavez, Rafael Correa, and Evo Morales.

In the most recent episode, Sean Penn wrote an op-ed in Huffington Post condemning the State Department for economic sactions against Venezuela’s oil company, PDVSA. Decrying the sanctions’ unfairness, Pennsays that ‘Venezuelans live in abject poverty’. On that we agree: the plight of the poor in Venezuela is stunning. Yet Mr. Penn it seems has not stopped to think of why so many Venezuelans are so poor in such a rich country. Under Chavez’s twelve-year rule alone, Venezuela has earned close to 1 trillion dollars in oil wealth. Yet the people remain desperately poor. Lets put this in perspective, this one thousand billion dollars translates to over $130,000 per average Venezuelan family. What did Chavez do with it? It is hard to believe that after 12 years of this kind of hard income Chavez – who Penn defends so wholeheartedly – has been unable to reduce poverty. This seems to be more a reason to call for new leadership than to defend the current one. If this were the case in the United States, of a President who after holding the equivalent of three terms, as Chavez has – Mr. Penn himself would probably be calling for a change in the White House – and rightly so.

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Pro-Hugo Chavez propagandist, Oliver Stone, came to Pomona College to promote his film, “South of the Border.” Stone, fresh off making the 2010 list of the Simon Wiesenthal Center’s top ten anti-Semitic slurs for his belittling of the Holocaust , continued to mispronounce Chavez as “Sha-vez” and to apologize for the Latin American tyrant’s pro-Iranian speech. Have a look here.

Stone was the guest of pro-Hugo Chavez, anti-tea party professor, Miguel Tinker Salas, according to the student newspaper. When answering a question about Chavez’s support for the Iranian dictatorship and Hezbollah, Stone curiously leaned over and whispered with Tinker Salas. I guess he was looking for the party line.

Even the left-wing newspapers think Stone’s film is propaganda. “South of the Border” was savaged in the New York Times. The Washington Post said Stone lobbed softball questions to Chavez. NPR said Stone treated Latin American leaders with “kid gloves.”

Stone, who says that he “liked what we saw” in Latin America, never met with any dissidents while there.

Here’s the transcript of an exchange with Stone and a Pomona college student. You can watch the exchange here…

Student: Chavez considers the dictatorship of Iran great for its people and fully supports the government. He also considers Hezbollah to be heroic and legitimate. Do you agree? And Danny Glover got money from the government of Venezuela; did you? And who financed this film?

[Leans over, and whispers to pro-Chavez professor Miguel Tinker Salas]

Stone: We did not get any money from the government of Venezuela for the film. We made this movie outside that domain, and we were critical, if need be, but we liked what we saw. As you can see from the movie, we were trying to balance what we see as an extremely negative picture, so we were not going to go into a ‘he-said-you-said’ kind of documentary because I think it would have taken far longer and we would not have been able to cover the general movement of change in South America. This is truly a first look, a 101 type course, on South America. On the issue of the Middle East, on Iran, I heard, and on Hezbollah, I’m not going to get into that argument, but I will say Chavez trades with us in oil and Iran is a standing member of OPEC and has been for quite a few years and all, not just Chavez, but Saudi Arabia, all the members of OPEC, Russia, and have quite a lot of [business dealings] to Iran, so does the United States, too, by the way.

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A film hailed as the top conservative movie in 25 years enjoyed two showings in D.C. recently, this summer at the Goethe-Institute – the German cultural center in Washington, D.C. – and again last week at The Heritage Foundation’s new House-side building. For Heritage, it was beginning of a new conservative film club they’ve started – yet another reason why it’s great to live in D.C. The club was inspired by a February 2009 list of the top 25 conservative films of the last 25 years that National Review writer and BH contributor John Miller (no relation, people) compiled. The movie, “The Lives of Others,” was the list’s number one film. 

For those unfamiliar with the 2007 Foreign Film Oscar winner “The Lives of Others,” it is a German thriller about the Stasi in 1984 East Germany, the then-Communist German Democratic Republic. The Stasi, GDR’s Ministry of State Security, enforced Party policy and loyalty of speech and action. The goal of the Stasi was to know everything, and they did so through an extensive network of agents and informants that touched the lives of everyone in the GDR. 

In “The Lives of Others,” a strong, mournful Soviet-influenced string soundtrack accompanies an equally Soviet-influenced plot. East Germany’s lone socialist playwright with both talent and loyalty, Georg Dreyman (Sebastian Koch), becomes the target of heavy surveillance when a high-up GDR official falls for his actress girlfriend, Christa-Maria Sieland (Martina Gedeck) and wants him removed. Loyal socialist Stasi Captain Gerd Wiesler (Ulrich Mühe) oversees the surveillance operation to find fault with the socialist artist. But as the hypocrisy of his GDR comrades drives him from faith in the Party, and the faultlessness of his playwright subject leaves him sympathetic, Wiesler begins to question his allegiances, and as Dreyman grows subversive, Wiesler is forced to make a choice – between a Party of falsehood and a man of merit.  (more…)

When will Hollywood even begin tell the true story about the Russian Revolution, Lenin, Stalin and its subsequently more successful imitators such as Mao Zedong and Kim Jong Il?

Obviously some hopefuls for similar success, George Soros, Barack Obama – not to mention the likes of Hugo Chavez – are riding on the back of what basically amounts to world ignorance about the entire nightmare of the Communist Revolutions worldwide.

As a perfect revelation of Hollywood’s utter narcosis, the Warren Beatty film, REDS, is not the indictment of Communism which some might try to paint it as, but the very effective portrait of Communism’s harmlessness.

A few American “idealistic” Leftists were, well, merely disappointed with the Russian Revolution.

That’s it.

Nothing more dangerous than broken dreams.

David Lean’s Dr. Zhivago?

That is just the beginning of the truth within Soviet and now neo-Soviet Russia. (more…)

Far be it from me to pull a Patrick Goldstein and be the cause of a fellow righty landing on the conservative Hollywood blacklist, but news is news and the fact that for decades now Oliver Stone has been a right-wing spy embedded deep in the heart of Tinseltown and successfully producing one pro-American propaganda film after another through the devious use of reverse psychology IS NEWS. Besides, with “South of the Border” Stone effectively outs himself.

I’m sorry Oliver, but as a *wink-wink* pro-Hugo Chavez filmmaker you can’t ask the Venezuelan strongman to let you film him pedaling around on a little girl’s bicycle and then not edit out the part where he falls off without giving away that subversive right-wing desire of yours to make a world-wide joke of a tyrant clown who hates your beloved America and cozies up to the terrorists who would do her harm. So don’t blame me. You blew your own cover.

And for those who doubt this theory, let me present to you the facts. Below are highlights from Stone’s illustrious career. Take a good look at what this patriot’s accomplished and then tell me he’s not a double agent for God and apple pie: (more…)

Throughout the promotional campaign for “South of the Border,” director Oliver Stone has been loudly complaining about what he sees as the American media’s unfavorable bias towards the subject of his documentary, Venezuela’s Hugo Chavez. Obviously this is a propaganda trick on Stone’s part – a way to shame the media into covering his film without challenging him on the facts or asking any hard questions. Judging from a recent interview the two-time Oscar winner granted to Ann Hornaday of the Washington Post, the trick appears to have worked.   

Once upon a time the Washington Post was a reliable newspaper with ethical investigative reporters. That of course was before Woodward and Bernstein elevated the Fourth Estate denizens to deity wannabes who could bring down a president. Now the once vaunted daily allows amateurish, star-struck reporters to give entertainment celebrities a pass in lieu of professional journalistic coverage. 

I’ve written for three newspapers in the past twelve years and endured the critique of numerous editors who’d never let me get away with the one-sided article that Ann Hornaday wrote about Oliver Stone. She allowed Stone to make the following statement without challenging his resources:  (more…)

His heroes are Hugo Chavez and Fidel Castro. He thinks both have been given a bum rap in the American media. He also thinks Venezuela is a democratic nation whose people enjoy the same freedoms as we do here in America. So when Oliver Stone brags about smuggling coca leaves into the United States should that really be a surprise to anyone?

INTERVIEWER: For that ailment [altitude sickness], you appear onscreen chewing coca leaves. Is that high much different than having caffeine?

STONE: No, it’s a mild, mild stimulus. You’re at 12,000 feet, so you’re nauseous and it’s really hard to breathe. This opens the cells, you get better oxygen and you feel more relaxed. I was nauseous, and then I ended up playing soccer, that was sort of the point. They’ve been doing it for centuries down there. It’s a normal thing to do. By the way, I brought coca leaves back. It’s illegal in this country to have a coca leaf, but put it in a cup of tea and it’s better for your health than coffee. But of course, there’s more money for us in coffee as well as tobacco, so we’d rather do that for stimulation.

As a narco-journalist and documentary filmmaker myself, I too have been given the opportunity to smuggle contraband in and out of the United States. I’ve even been offered large sums of money to do it and can’t think of a single reason as to what would motivate me to agree. Putting coca leaves in your tea is like putting Crystal Meth in your orange juice — not a real smart move. (more…)

Just like Oliver Stone I have recently returned from a trip to Venezuela.

I have been a journalist in some pretty unusual places that have more than a few security issues. I have investigated some unsavory people in places such as Romania, Uzbekistan,Cambodia and Uganda. I went undercover in Indonesia and ended up ensuring that one particularly cruel and crooked mother and daughter team received lengthy jail sentences in the other Jakarta Hilton.

But out of all these places and scenarios I can honestly say that Caracas is the scariest place I have ever been.

It feels and is lawless. The people have the despair of those who know their lives should be better but are beaten down by the everyday misery of watching their savings and futures disappear. Murders and kidnappings are endemic. There is a small area of Caracas that is safe for foreigners during the day. At night you have to be careful everywhere. Poverty and high prices seem to increase along with the oil revenues that are kept or misspent by the government.

Whilst I was there Hugo Chavez, the country’s president, did one of his regular Sunday broadcasts. These 4 hour homages to himself are a feature of life in Venezuela, that and shortages of things like milk, bottled water and toilet paper. During the broadcast Chavez is seen walking through an old part of Caracas with the local mayor. His red-shirted entourage surround him. He points to a jewelry shop and asks what it is. When he is told he immediately shouts, Expropriate! Expropriate! He goes on to repeat this action on a number of other small jewelry shops in the area before moving on and reminding his audience of how great he is. (more…)

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I thought Obama put an end to all this ugly America’s empiring? Or is Oliver Stone the last remaining critic of this country yet to receive a Presidential bow?

Anyway, here’s a glimpse of Oliver Stone’s pal:

Venezuela has asked Interpol to arrest the owner of the only TV station still openly critical of leftist President Hugo Chavez, the government announced Friday. ….

Zuloaga was previously detained in March, when he was accused of criticizing the government during a public forum outside the country.

International human rights groups have criticized the legal action against Zuloaga and other Chavez critics, calling such actions an attempt to silence them.

And here’s a glimpse of how much affection Chavez’s own people hold for him: (more…)

My little series of articles on Marlon’s Mao posed the possibility that if Marlon Brando had lived longer he would have inevitably been cast as Mao Zedong.

The crème de la crème of the Hollywood Left would have unquestionably flocked to help with an epic depiction of this monster’s life, best recorded by Jung Chang but most certainly put back into “balance” by a Hollywood Left, with Oliver Stone most likely leading the revisionists’ jury.

Piling increasingly bizarre tributes on the head of that Mini-Mao, Hugo Chavez, Stone need only find enough Maoist money to make more cinematic history with his “in-depth” examination of the “much-misunderstood” Founding Father of Modern Hollywood Left and Maoism.

I’m sure the Far Left Actor, Sean Penn, is willing to leave his post in Haiti for such a challenge.

Both he and Stone are big admirers of Hugo Chavez and one would assume, Mao Zedong. (more…)

This is our sixth month of Obama Nation strips. Huzzah!

In Part One of this two-part series, I described the widely varying treatment of renowned directors Jafar Panahi and Roman Polanski by the leftist Hollywood establishment vis-a-vis their arrests and incarcerations, Polanski for child rape, Panahi for mere dissent. It is merely the latest chapter in a long and sickening history of the Hollywood Left’s willful blindness to and even profiting from the McCarthyite persecution and dire straits of creative film artists in Iran revolting over a stolen election, while child rapist Polanksi gets the Oscar treatment with regard to calls for his release and freedom.

But before I get into the stomach-churning details of the Hollywood Left’s shattered moral compass vis-a-vis directors Polanski and Panahi and other Iranian film artists, I would like to take a moment to honor more of the true heroes who have spoken out loudly on Mr. Panahi’s behalf and signed petitions for his release. The National Society of Film Critics. The Boston, L. A. and  Toronto Film Critics Associations. Arin Paul of the New York Times. Filmmaker Ken Loach. Rutger Wolfson, director of the Rotterdam Film Festival. German Foreign Minister Guido Westerwelle. Human Rights Watch. French Minister of Culture Frederic Mitterand. Iranhumanrights.org. The list really is long.

Of course, noticeably absent from those petitioning and publicly calling for the release of Mr. Panahi from his unjust tomb-like captivity in Tehran are all of the prominent Hollywood A-List petitioners for Polanski. So Mr. Polanski’s arrest for child rape is worthy of international pressure and outrage, but famed director Jafar Panahi being tossed into a crypt in Tehran on “unspecified charges” is not? Welcome to Lefty Hollywood. And it only gets worse. The most tragic case of Jafar Panahi is yet one more sorry, perplexing and infuriating chapter in leftist Hollywood’s incredible blind side to any human rights violations in Iran, never mind only those perpetrated against Iranian filmmakers today. (more…)

Sean Penn, who has some kind of twisted relationship with Hugo Chavez, recently defended the Venezuelan president. In an article in the Guardian, Penn, “defended Hugo Chavez as a model democrat and said those who call him a dictator should be jailed.”

He directed his ire directly at journalists who accuse Chavez of being a socialist and a dictator.  He said:

“Every day, this elected leader is called a dictator here, and we just accept it, and accept it. And this is mainstream media. There should be a bar by which one goes to prison for these kinds of lies.”

According to the Washington Post, the murder rate in Venezuela has quadrupled in the past 11 years under the leadership of Hugo Chavez. The article breaks it down to two murders every hour.

Perhaps Mr. Penn would like to educate himself on the recent findings of the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights.  This 319-page report was referenced in an editorial in the Washington Post dated March 1, 2010 titled, “Report details violence and lost freedoms in Venezuela.” (more…)

Can any of you remember a time when so many creative film artists in Hollywood shit where they eat by endlessly voicing such outspoken contempt and loathing for the majority of the American people, our history and our way of life? I can’t. Now I’m not talking about Hollywood Lefties going off on political tangents like at HuffPo. We do the same damn thing here. I’m talking fighting words as defined in the Chaplinsky ruling. Too many fighting words coming out of Lefty Hollywood these days.

I don’t know about you, but I’m mad as hell and I’m not going to take them anymore. Prime example. Sean Penn calling for the arrest of anyone who tags dictator Hugo Chavez as a dictator. That must now include the mass arrest of the entire leadership of the OAS, which just slammed Pennhead’s hero El Chavista on his horrific human rights record. I will say it: that statement is as un-American as it gets, and is dictatorial in itself. Those are fighting words, IMHO. Tell me where I’m wrong.

Then we had Tom Hanks effectively saying that the Japanese and Americans wanted to destroy each other only because they were different breeds of racists. That intellectually vacuous statement not only slanders America’s most honorable record in the war against a genocidal Imperial Japan, it slanders the sacred memory of every US service member who fought and died in that conflict. As a Navy veteran myself, and the son of an Army veteran of Normandy Beach on D-Day? Fighting words. (more…)

We have all heard of Sean Penn’s most recent outbreak of insanity when he suggested that the critics of his efforts in Haiti “die screaming of rectal cancer.”  Of course his whole life has been filled with controversy.  But when he opens his mouth some of the most nasty, ill informed, un-patriotic trash spews out.

Of President Bush on the Iraq war he stated: “I am more patriotic than this president, who I consider a traitor of human and American principles.”

The Cambridge dictionary online defines “patriotic” as “showing love for your country and being proud of it.”

I don’t believe patriotism equates to calling ones President “a traitor of human and American principles.”  It is not up to Sean Penn or any of his Hollywood friends like Susan Sarandon, Charlie Sheen, and Tim Robbins to decide our President is a traitor.  Our system of government has a method to identify traitorous Presidents.  Over the course of President Bush’s eight years in office he was never identified as a traitor.  So how much truth is in Penn’s allegations? (more…)

Although Sean Penn has the reputation of being a fine actor, I’ve never shared that opinion and regard his acting as overrated. His early performance in “Fast Times at Ridgemont High” as stoner Jeff Spicoli is regarded fondly by those with sophomoric comedic taste but my taste prefers more subtlety. Penn absolutely destroyed the film “The Interpreter” with his hound dog expression throughout the film and “I Am Sam” remains the thespian lesson in what to avoid when portraying the mentally challenged. 

I used to think that Penn’s liberal statements came from a genuine concern for the poor and downtrodden and did not laugh at that pathetic picture of Penn in that leaky rowboat in New Orleans after the Katrina devastation. I also did not join the skeptics who questioned his Haitian relief efforts. I figured him to be naïve but with his recent statement that “Hugo Chavez” is not a dictator, the truth is finally clear. Sean Penn is an idiot-a useful one-but an idiot nonetheless. 

I’ve never been to Venezuela but I know many transplanted immigrants from that country who relate tales of horror since that “dictator” took over. What kind of spell has Chavez spun to cloud the Hollywood fool’s mind to the damage this man has wrought on his country?  (more…)

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What is it with Sean Penn? When he’s not busy wishing rectal cancer on his critics (and looking constipated while doing it), he’s slamming Americans who dare to say mean and nasty things about his pal Hugo Chavez. I kid you not!

In a recent appearance on Bill Maher’s HBO show, Penn showered praise on Venezuela for assisting him in assisting the quake victims in Haiti. He also claimed to have a little sympathy for those who hold America-as-an-evil-empire-looking-to-conquer-the-world views. Then he turns around and says journalists here who call Chavez a dictator (shudder) should do a stint in the hoosegow:

The collaborative opportunity in Haiti, when you talk about Hugo Chavez, and some of the other people who are demonized [think Castro], and you know, when some of these countries accuse us of an occupation – where I believe this was strictly a humanitarian action by the United States military, and an incredible one – I’m a little sympathetic. Because every day, this elected leader is called a dictator here, and we just accept it! And accept it. And this is mainstream media, who should – truly, there should be a bar by which one goes to prison for these kinds of lies.

Okay, so he’s not officially a dictator. Neither was Saddam Hussein, you may recall – he won 100 percent of the vote back in the day. How about we call Hugo “dictator in waiting” instead? Would that make Sean feel better?

Let’s take a look at some of the things Venezuela’s  duly elected leader has done lately: (more…)

Stalin reportedly referred to blind defenders and apologists for the former Soviet Union in democratic Western countries as “useful idiots.” Since Stalin’s day, the list has grown to include either those who defend or apologize for radical Islamic regimes or who just turn a blind eye because it suits them for financial or other reasons.

Add singer Beyoncé Knowles to that list:

On Sunday, Mediaite reported that singer Beyoncé Knowles had given a private New Year’s Eve performance for an exclusive crowd in St. Barth — and made the case that she had performed and been paid by relatives of Libyan dictator Muammar Gaddafi (variously known as Khadafy, Qaddafi, Quadhafi and more). Atlanta-based blogger Necole Bitchie reported a $2 million fee; the UK Mirror reported a “six-figure sum” and yesterday Media Takeout made the same claim, repeating the $2 million number and confirming the Gaddafi-hosted party from a guest who was there (hip-hop impresario Russell Simmons also placed Beyoncé at a “Khadafy party.” Today Page Six confirms our original report, with one new piece of information: the party was thrown by Moutassim Gaddafi, known as Hannibal, son of the Libyan dictator who less than a week before made headlines for allegedly attacking his wife in a London hotel.

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Every circus needs a clown, but sometimes it takes a clown to tell the truth.

And so we have Hugo Chavez, the pockmarked prince of all things petulant – paying a visit to the Climate Change conference to rousing, delirious applause. Check out the human sausage below.

In sum, Chavez is all about ending “imperial dictatorships,” and that “capitalism is the road to hell.” He says, “Let’s fight against capitalism and make it obey us.”

He also said he liked to have sex with goats while Sean Penn watched, but I may have gotten that translation wrong.

Anyway, according to the Herald Sun, all of this was greeted with a standing ovation. And Hugo deserves it – for he’s exposing this crap fest for what it is: a massive transfer of wealth from the west to scumbags like him.

But Chavez wasn’t the only one to lecture America on how evil we are. There was Zimbabwe President, Robert Mugabe, who noted that as “these capitalist gods of carbon…belch their dangerous emissions,” it’s “the lesser mortals of the developing sphere” who die. Yeah, we’re the murderers. Not Mugabe – who delighted in the torture, starvation and killing of his own people, for years. (more…)